Destined by fate
by Seeker of the Skies
Summary: What happens when you're torn from the only life you know, only to find out that the people you've known all your life are not who they claim to be. When you're thrown into a war and stationed in the front lines. And trapped in a confusing life you were always destined to have without ever having known it. That answer remains unclear, but there is one thing you know. This is fate.
1. Beginning of the dark

_Hello everyone, and welcome to what has to be the third rewrite of this story. This will be the last time I rewrite it, if no one reads it after this than no one reads it. I'm hopeful though, so it's alright._

_Anyway this is a undisneyed version of kingdom hearts, so its got all the disney characters taken out (Though some I've just changed alot, as for example there is still a King and Queen called Mickey and Minnie, but they've been changed alot.) The little things Disney added in to things like the doorknob in alice in wonderland have also been taken out. There are probably still alot of elements from Disney that have snuck their way in here but what can you do._

_Secondly this is a combination of most of my Kingdom hearts fanfics (I like to screw up the storys lines of stories for my own amusment) so there are alot of differences in the plot. Not so many of them are in the first part of this story, apart from right at the start that relate to Riku and Kairi and Leon's group. The biggest changes are to Kairi and Riku in the way that they are rather detached from Sora at the start. You'll see what I mean by that later._

_You might not get the first chapter that much at first but it'll clear up, and you'll hopefully get it by the fourth. If not pm me and I'll explain what I can._

**_Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix does._**

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><p><em><strong>Beginning of the dark<strong>_

Beneath closed lids, dark images flashed. A mystical cavern where every probing glance was met with darkness, light that appeared from nowhere and little black monsters that came forth from the floor in pools of darkness and hopped about, clawing and slashing.

And at the end of it all, the crowning piece, a monster greater than all others. One that rose from the shadows and stretched far into the dark expanse of sky, menacing and ominous. It sought to do nothing more than to attack before the shadows reclaimed it for their own, and in doing so, you as well

All the while, an unrecognisable voice spoke into your ear from place unknown, of keys and doors.

...:...

Sora woke with a start.

Off to his right, someone jumped back in fright and almost lost their balance, only to regain it at the last moment.

"What was that about?!" A girl yelled at him.

Glancing up to find a grumpy Selphie, Sora threw her an apologetic smile hoping it would smooth her over "Sorry." he added for further emphasis.

Selphie contemplated for a second then let her grumpy expression fall from her face and she shrugged "Doesn't matter."

Walking over to take a seat by Sora on the sand, she joined him in looking out to the sunset that painted the sea a mesmerising array of red and orange. Taking a moment to get into a comfortable position, she asked "So what were you dreaming about anyway, huh, had to be something to wake you up like that?"

"Hmmm" Sora hummed and scratched his head trying to think of an adequate way he could attempt try to express the dream he'd just had, bizarre as it was "It was so strange" he started "It was all dark and there were these black things everywhere and this giant monster that came up out of the ground and tried to attack me-"

Sora got no further when the sound of Selphie's laughter cut him off "Sounds like the strangest dream." She giggled.

"Hey it isn't funny." He argued in his defence. At the very least, that's not how he'd label it.

"But you always have weird dreams and they're all funny so why isn't this one?"

"Ah-um…" stumbling over his words Sora tried to think of a rebuke she wouldn't throw right back at him. Scratching his head again, he managed a feeble "Well this wasn't really a dream." lowering his hand he looked back out to the sunset "It felt so real."

Then as if snapping out of a trance, he twisted back to face Selphie again who had stopped her giggling to listen to his meagre argument and shot back "And at the very least it was a nightmare!"

His sudden turnaround of moods had Selphie bent over double laughing again all anew. She kept this up for another couple of second or so before Sora looked around and thought to ask.

"Hey, where are Tidus and Wakka?"

Looking back to Sora, Selphie straightened up, seemingly just remembering their absence "Oh yeah, they're over on the other side of the island playing that ball game of theirs. I got bored so I came to find you. Thought at the very least you'd be better company than them. You should have seen the look on my face when I found that you were asleep." She tacked on melodramatic gesture.

"Oh, sorry about that, I got really tired, couldn't keep my eyes open."

"It doesn't matter." Selphie reassured him. Lying back on her hands, she pursed her lips as if debating something in her head. Then with a quick look around the island, she got up off the ground and dusted the sand off her dress, and after a moment or so walked past him.

"Where are you going?" Sora asked with a curious glance in the direction she was heading.

"Over there to the small island across the bridge," she pointed "it's getting all shadowy over here; I'll get more sun over there. Wanna come?"

"Sure." Sora replied with a nod, and got up off the ground and dusted himself off like she had. Wiping the last grain of sand off him he began after her, and followed her to the bridge that led to the island and walked along it with her.

It was only a small scrap of land, a couple of meters either way that stood in the shallows of a larger island. The larger of course was still small when compared to the others where everyone lived, but it was large enough for all the kids to use as a place of play.

Once there, Sora took a seat on a peculiar looking tree that grew out sideways and fostered yellow star shaped fruit. Sitting across from him on the ground with her back against a palm tree, Selphie looked up at the yellow fruit and smiled.

"The Paopu fruit have some of the nicest little legends about them, don't you think Sora?"

Looking to the fruit themselves Sora replied "I guess so."

Not satisfied with his answer, Selphie threw him a look and spoke out passionately "What kind of answer is that? I mean, the legend that if you share one with someone, you'll be linked for all eternity is so nice," she swooned "and so romantic!"

Sora looked to the fruits and back to the brown haired girl in front of him "Selphie, with you, everything's romantic."

She scowled at him and yelled "Hey!" But he knew that the animosity behind it was fake, because soon she was laughing and him along with her.

...:...

With his hands behind his head, Sora strolled leisurely along the paths that crisscrossed between the houses. After leaving the small island where he'd been hanging out he'd originally intending to go home, but he guessed he got, well, distracted. It was either that or his mind was subconsciously making him avoid his house and the dreaded little he-demon that was his little brother Jay. He thought it was very likely the latter. Because like it or not, his brother was nuts.

In fact, it was a popular topic of discussion among his friends how all the adults found him so cute. Alright, on the outside he was. Maybe he even did cute things every now and then, Sora would admit to that. But getting your dad's mallet and going into your big brothers room and smashing everything you set your eyes on, only to be found later in that very same room with the shredded reminds of some cherished childhood toy in your hands with nothing to say for yourself but a measly little "oops" wasn't.

That was just insane. So insane he'd even managed to coax Kairi, the quiet girl she was, into talking to him about it. She'd even had a few feeble chuckles about it, at his expanse of course. But when the topic's your little brother smashing up your room, it's very hard not to.

Breathing out a sigh Sora reminded himself not to get so worked up about that again, even if it would be rightly so. There was unfortunately nothing he could do about it now, except maybe getting Jay back for it when they were older.

Scratching his chin, Sora smirked to himself. He'd have to do that someday.

Adjusting his pace as he walked down a steep hill, Sora looked around for something else to occupy his attention. If he stayed on the subject of Jay destroying his room there were no guarantees that he wouldn't return home with a hammer with Jay's rooms name on it.

There didn't seem like there was much to do at dusk on the island. He figured it would've probably been best to go straight home anyway, He-demon or not, because it didn't even seem like anyone was out right now anyway.

Still he decided to look around a little more. And after another couple of minutes or so of mindless searching, his eyes landed on Kairi were she sat in the distance with a tree at her back. Her eyes unfocused as she looked out between the maze of houses and to the ocean beyond. He contemplated going to talk to her for a second not knowing if she'd say anything or not, then decided he might as well. If she didn't talk she didn't talk, and he'd just have to go home.

Walking in her direction at an easy pace, he took his time getting to the hill. Approaching her he stopped just to her left. He was a little surprised when she didn't react to him. He guessed that's just how out she must have been.

"Hey"

Her reaction made him want to laugh. She jumped a good foot in the air and bent over; clutching her chest like she'd had a heart attack. Still, it kind of made him feel a little sorry for scaring her, so he apologised.

"Sorry didn't mean to scare you."

He sat down beside her and she gave him the most incredulous of looks. Returning her stare, just not quite so intensely, he gave his chin a scratch. "I'm going to say going by your stare, you want to know why I'm here?"

Kairi gave him a small nod and made no attempt at a verbal response.

"I was bored actually, I could go home, but um, you know what's awaiting me there."

This time she gave slight smile, knowing he meant Jay, but nothing more.

Glancing at her, Sora let the silence between them go on for a small while more, before he said "You're so quiet you know, sometimes I can't help but wonder if I could talk to you for hours and not hear a word out of you

She looked up at him momentarily, then back down again. He thought she would do no more than that, but she surprised him by saying her first verbal piece of the conversation.

"T-that'd be saying a bit much I t-think." Her voice was small and wavering, but he heard her clearly enough. And it may have just been him, but he thought he heard a touch of humour in her voice.

"That so?" he murmured, seeing if it would coax her in to saying anything more.

After a few moments hesitation she stuttered out "I-I'm a quiet person, that's just the way I am. B-but I'd think I'd g-get bored if I didn't talk for that long."

Sora shrugged, agreeing with her completely. He decided against trying to make her talk further after that. If she wasn't going to say anything more than she just wasn't, there was no need to make her. Besides, this conversation was already turning out to be a record holder among their talks, if you could have even called them that. Because most of the time he was the only one doing the talking. Strangely that never seemed to bother him; he liked talking to people, even if they didn't talk back. So he liked when he got to talk to Kairi even if he only did once on a blue moon.

Looking up into the sky, he didn't say anything more to her.

She was a strange girl, he thought. She had appeared on the island ten years ago, but from where, nobody knew. She never spoke about the place of her birth. Though it was obvious that it had been another world, that was for sure, but what that world had been was anyone's guess. And the memory of it, according it her, had long faded from her memory so there was no use in asking anymore.

That wasn't to say that some people were still curious. She had been taken in by the mayor and had lived here for years, but in so many ways she was still an outsider. He guessed she caused some of that herself by being so withdrawn.

He remembered the way in which all the kids had been so curious of her when she had first appeared. Back then she hadn't been so quiet and elusive; in fact she had been quite talkative and willing to make friends. One of which had been him. And all of them wanted to know about her and the world she came from, not that she ever told them much. He remembered the way Riku-

He stopped that thought there. Surprised how quickly that name could sour his thoughts.

Any further thought was interrupted by the sound of an alarm. Sora jumped in surprise and turned to Kairi, who had brought her watch to her face to press a small button on the side to silence the annoying sound. Getting up from her spot by the tree, he did the same.

"S-sorry, my parents don't like me s-staying out any longer, I have t-to go."

"That's alright." He replied.

He waved her goodbye as she all but fled in the other direction. Blowing out a sigh, he replaced his hands behind his head. Now all he could do was return back home, and well, it would be polite to say he didn't feel like doing that. But it would be mean to stay out any longer knowing the worrywart his mother was.

He jogged down the hill then steadied his pace and walked in the direction of his house, doing the best he could to keep his past thoughts out of his head.

...:...

Midnight's light flitted in through the windows as Kairi swept her legs over the window ledge and let herself out into the night. Her white dress luminescent in the darkness.

She walked past the boundaries of her house and retraced steps she hadn't taken in nearly two months into an alley that hid her from view. For this, to not be seen was of utmost importance. As it was though, she could feel his knowing eyes on her every step of the way. That didn't bother her as much as it should have. For he watched her most every time she did this and he wasn't as ignorant as she led the others to believe, as she let her quiet, withdrawn, fake self belie them into thinking she was someone she was not.

Drawing power from within herself, she released it and let it take the form of a portal of shining light. Once the portal was fully formed, she stepped through it, and it took her fall away from the dark little alley.

Once she reappeared, her surroundings were nothing like those of a few seconds past. Before her now stood a town square, its brick paths laid out in all directions and a set of steps in front of her that would take her from here, and to her destination. This was Traverse Town.

A force like a gush of wind blew at the ends of her dress as the portal closed, and a memory came back to her in an instant before it was gone. But its mark was left and she remembered the knowing stare she had felt on her but seconds before, and the name of its owner slipped thought her lips of its own accord.

"Riku."

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><p>Hope you enjoyed that and keep reading. Also please, please, please review because I seem to be cursed with unreviewing readers in my other stories and it drives me crazy. So I'll be ever thankful if you give me reviews, they don't have to be much, just something to tell me if your enjoying the story or not.<p>

Also concrit is fine, just nothing to extreme because I got one on the first chapter I ever put on here, and it was so extreme it was pure idiocy. So I can't say I have any love for them.

Anyway sayonara for now.


	2. Truths

_Hello everyone, how are you, here's the second chapter for you._

_This chapter has some more imformation for you on the story, but in my opinion could have been better. Unfortunately it just seemed that no matter how hard I tried it just wouldn't do what I wanted. But it'll surfice._

_Hope you like it._

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix does.**_

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><p><em><strong>Truths<strong>_

Kairi clenched her hands tight at her sides, then walked on. She left her thoughts of Riku behind her. He was a strange one she'd give him that. He'd always known more than others, but with a grandma who seemed obsessed with the topic of light and darkness, who'd blame him. She could act all she could, and never fool him. He saw right through her, had right from the start. But that was all.

As she mounted the steps that lay at edge of the square, a voice in her head told her to stop. Following its call, Kairi found that before she even turned around, she knew what was behind her.

"Wasn't your mother was against you coming here Hanabi." She said to the person behind her. It was a statement not a question.

Facing backwards, her eyes landed on a figure of a girl who looked to be about ten years old. She wore a black dress that was encircled with purple around her bust and ended neatly at her knees with an edge of lace. On her head was a beaded beret which covered her boy's length spikey brown hair and on her legs, a pair of black knee high boots that were loose around her ankles. Lastly, around her middle circled a black belt with a metallic buckle.

Knowing she was caught out, Hanabi scuffed a foot against the ground. "I know," she answered quietly. Her shyness didn't last long however, as with a shake of her head she gathered her courage and lifted her startling amber eyes to look Kairi in the face and gave her a much stronger response, "but that doesn't stop me from coming."

Her reaction made Kairi laugh, for a second there she'd thought she'd lost her. Turning on her heel, Kairi returned to her previous task of heading out of the district, as she had been doing before Hanabi's appearance disrupted her, knowing the girl would follow. "That's better, thought I'd lost you for a second there."

"You'll have to do better than that to get rid of me; you just caught me unprepared was all." Hanabi complained as she followed along behind her, but her tone was light so Kairi knew she wasn't truly annoyed.

"Yeah, yeah," she mumbled back. "But I'm still serious about your mother, I've heard some pretty bad things about Minnie's temper and I certainly don't want to know what it's like to be on that woman's bad side."

"Wise words Kairi, but I'll be alright."

Kairi wasn't so sure, but she wasn't going to question Hanabi's confidence on the matter. No matter the argument, Hanabi was impossible to win against, that was something she had learned from experience.

Cresting the top of another set of steps together, the two girls walked a little further before coming to a stop in front of a large pair of double doors. The tall wooden structures rose many metres above them. The sight of them made Hanabi sigh grumpily.

"I hate this part."

"Well you're not the only one, so don't complain."

"Yeeeah….that's not going to stop me complaining."

Holding back the urge to frown at her friend, Kairi ignored her and pushed the doors inwards. For all Hanabi's complaints, she knew when it got down to it; Hanabi would do what she must. Despite her age the girl was very capable, the two iron knuckles that dangled from her belt were most certainly not for show.

The doors swung outwards to reveal a vast area expanding outward from the doorway. Like the area before it, this one too was a concrete dominated scene, though vastly larger. A walkway spread out before them, diverging left and right, before it turned northwards and continued on. The walkway ended at the middle of the expanse on the right side, to where some stairs led down to a large square that took up most of the region below them. While on the left side it went all the way to the end, leading up to the doorway of a huge white building that stood out from the many others that decorated the scene, a building that had beautiful stained glass window illuminating its visible side. In the square below there were two pathways, one in the middle and one at the end, but where both led was blocked from view.

Stepping forward, Kairi walked to the edge of the walkway to where it dropped down to the square. There was a built up rim that encircled the entire span of it to stop anyone from accidentally falling over it. Placing her hands on that rim, Kairi looked over everything around her.

"There're out there, aren't they?" Hanabi asked from behind.

"Yeah," She responded with a small nod "but they're quiet, they shouldn't bother us for now."

She needn't have asked what Hanabi was referring to, for the answer was obvious. She was talking about the monsters that lurked about. Embodiments of darkness that haunted the worlds. They were a danger that kept many people up at night.

From the moment they had passed through the two wooden doors behind them, those monsters had become a threat to their safety. It was why Hanabi hated leaving the first district.

Of course, it wasn't like the small fry that hanged around this place posed much of a danger to them, though there was no denying that they were an annoyance. That was why Hanabi had asked her if they were near. She couldn't explain why, but she'd always had a knack for sensing their presence, and Hanabi was someone who would avoid meeting them by any means necessary.

Taking her hands off from the concrete surface they were resting on, Kairi turned around and walked back to Hanabi.

"Come on, we shouldn't let them wait on us so long."

"That'd be you that shouldn't leave them waiting, if you recall, I wasn't invited here." Hanabi called as she took Kairi's lead and followed as the other girl began to walk down the path to the left.

...:...

A couple minutes later and both girls emerged into a dark, sparsely furnished room of a small hotel. In the middle of the room currently occupying its main attraction, a king-sized bed, was a brown haired woman with mystifying green eyes.

Hearing them enter, she looked up from where her hands rested in her lap. Upon seeing Kairi a smile lit up her face and she got up to meet the girl by the door.

"Kairi, it's great to see you. About time too, Mr 'grumpy pants' has been getting impatient." She greeted warmly.

"It's good to see you too Aerith." Kairi replied taking her hands in her own.

Giving Kairi an energetic smile, Aerith made to lead her away to a door on the right side of the room, when her eyes caught sight of Hanabi.

Jumping in surprise, Aerith let go of Kairi's hand and looked straight at Hanabi.

"Hanabi, sorry I didn't see you." She hastily tried to apologise. But her words had scarcely left her month when her expression changed considerably, she seemed to remember something. "Wasn't Minnie against you coming here?" she paused "Actually, didn't she outright ban you from coming here?"

The look on Hanabi's face went a touch panicked for a moment, though it was swiftly wiped from her countenance "Maaaybe."

Letting out a sigh, Aerith shook her head and mumbled more to Kairi than anyone else "This is why I feel sorry for Minnie sometimes."

"I know what you mean."

Grumbling loudly, Hanabi complained "I can hear both you perfectly you know, I'm kinda standing right here!"

Looking back at Hanabi, Aerith apologised weakly and said to Kairi "Come on, we should go or the other two will get annoyed waiting."

"They probably already are." Kairi responded quietly as Aerith led her to the door on the other side of the room.

Opening it, Aerith walked through first. Kairi following her through, but she'd nary walked three steps into the room when there was a resounded-

"Redhead!"

Stepping artfully to the side, Kairi neatly avoided Yuffie and sent the girl rocketing into Hanabi, who just happened to be unlucky enough to be standing behind her.

Landing hard, Yuffie fell over and took Hanabi with her. Hitting the floor as a mess of limbs Yuffie struggled to get up, failing till Hanabi took hold of her and threw her from her. And never to be defeated, the moment she sprang back up to her feet, her retort was on her lips within seconds.

"Hey what was that about!"

"That was called learning from the past. What was that? The 156th time you've done that?" Kairi counted dryly.

"Wasn't that much." Yuffie muttered weakly.

"Close though."

A frown twisted Yuffie's face for a split moment, but it was soon erased and she opened her mouth to yell another retort.

"Enough." A voice spoke into the room. Not overly loud, but weighted with an authority that made it clear that the speaker was to be obeyed.

Glad that her scrabble with Yuffie was ended, Kairi turned to face the man who had spoken. She gave him a little smile which wasn't returned "Good to see you again Leon."

Leon greeted her with a nod of his head, and then got right down to business.

"You've been long overdue a visit, though I can't say overly much has happened since you haven't been here, so there isn't too much to fill you in on. But, no matter how small the number, the events that have taken place since you were last here are troubling."

Listening, Kairi took a seat on a chair close to her and saw the three girls behind her do the same. She read knowing looks on Aerith and Yuffie's faces, but Hanabi's portrayed ignorance. No different from her own she thought. Leon's words made her curious. Not much had happened to be concerned about for a long time. Nothing worth mentioning at least.

She noticed that before Leon went on, he cast a glance in Hanabi's direction. Though unlike her and Aerith, he didn't say anything about her presence here.

Never the one for stalling, Leon got right down to it.

"The dark seekers have began to move again. Their more active now then they have been in years. And plainly stated, chaos reigns in many more worlds than one."

Purging her lips, Kairi took in that knowledge. Something made her think that even without being told this she could have guessed as much regardless. Something had seemed off for a long while, and a resurgence of the Dark seekers would explain it perfectly. The Dark seekers were an organisation of people who worked on the side of darkness. They were practically a symbol of chaos. The only certainty of them, was that they'd always be a woman. No man existed within their vast ranks. Kairi guessed it was good sort of strategy, because face it, woman would always be seen as the weaker gender and the Dark seekers were the masters of deception. They'd never been caught.

Focusing her attention back on Leon, she asked, "What did you mean by others, who else have been stirring up trouble lately. Cuz I have to say seeing if the Dark seekers are back in the game, we really don't need anything else to add to our plates. Because you sure don't get worse than them."

"That unfortunately is something out of our control." Leon responded with a note in his vote that said he had thoughts much the same, "but by others I meant those affiliated with that _'Witch'_. While in the long run they may not pose the same danger that the Dark seekers do, they are a much more immediate threat. I suggest you don't think lightly of them."

"Hmm" Kairi hummed. She hoped there wasn't much more in ways of troubles. News of the Dark seekers was always enough of a pain as it was. "Anything more?"

"Not much on a big level, but there are specifics."

"Like what?"

Leon threw her a look momentarily then averted his gaze in favour of the wall opposite. The look threw her off some; there was something in it that she couldn't quite put a name to. Though strangely, she thought she saw hesitation in that glance.

"Esper." He spoke this name with distaste, "she's at the head of their ranks leading them. In just the two months since you last visited here, many worlds have fallen at her hands."

"How many?" Kairi asked, now generally intrigued. Concerned too, by no small amount. Esper was a name known to them, one that was being spoken many years before her birth. Before any of their births in fact, but this kind of damage was unheard of.

"Couldn't say, though it wouldn't be of much use to you if I could anyway."

Kairi nodded, understanding she'd hear no more of that exact topic. "What else?"

Leon opened his mouth to say something, then shut it again. The same hesitancy that had affected his glance before seeped into his eyes, and he shot a glance up to the three girls at the back of the room that had stayed quiet throughout the conversation.

"This is something I need to tell Kairi alone."

The girls looked a little surprised at this request, but under Leon's serious gaze, the question of complying to his wish was absolute. Yuffie looked as if she was going to argue against it for a second there, but at a glance from Aerith she was silenced. So without a word they all filed out of the room.

Watching as Aerith left last and closed the door behind them, Kairi looked back to Leon. "What is it you need to tell me?"

Now this had her confused. What could he possibly have to say to her that he couldn't say in front of the others. It wasn't like she was anyone special to the outside world in the ways Leon and his gang were. She wasn't a fighter, just someone different from others. A difference that made her worthy of protection. Her coming here was more a matter of them assuring her safety than anything else.

Swallowing a lump in his throat, an action that did nothing to ease the flow of confusion going through Kairi's body, Leon said.

"You're not going to like this."

...:...

A couple minutes past in the quiet of the small dark room in which the girls sat. Conversation was attempted, but it didn't work out very well. So the attempt was abandoned and Aerith and Hanabi took to laying on the bed in waiting for Leon to finish his conversation to Kairi. Yuffie on the other hand had decided that she wasn't going to do that and was currently pressing herself up against the door to see how much she could make out of what was being said on the other side. But from the disgruntled look on her face, it was obvious her efforts were failing.

Glancing over at the door, Hanabi asked the silent women beside her. "What'd ya think he's telling her?

Humming softly, Aerith shrugged, "It's anyone's guess. I haven't heard of anything that relates to her lately. I think."

Sucking in a breath, Hanabi exhaled it loudly and sat up on the bed and leaned forward. "This is boring!" She complained.

Giving Hanabi a small smile from where she sat, Aerith took up position next to her, "Yeah, but there's nothing we can do about that can we?"

"We could throw pillows at Yuffie." Hanabi interjected.

Failing to hold back a small laugh at the girl suggestion Aerith replied. "But that's mean."

"Yes, buuuut" Hanabi drawled, slowly turning her face to Aerith, the most evil expression plastered on her features, "you laughed."

So before Aerith could do anything to stop her, Hanabi grabbed a pillow and sent it flying straight at Yuffie. It hit dead on target and the girl screamed in protest "Hey what was that a-"

The door slammed open without warning however before she could finish her sentence, mowing her aside, as a distressed looking Kairi ploughed past them without giving them a moment's notice and headed straight for the door with not a look back.

Opening it, the girl was out of it before anyone could think to say anything.

Looking at the door dumbfounded, long moments ticked by as Hanabi and Aerith tried to make sense of what just happened.

"Wha?" Hanabi said at last, her eyes locked to the door.

Shaking her head to snap herself out of it, Aerith got off the bed and went over to Yuffie to help the poor girl off the ground. As she did so, she sent a confused look in Leon's direction from where he stood silhouetted in the doorway.

"What did you say to her?"

He hesitated in speaking for a moment, then shrugged and said one word.

"Rhapsody."

Hanabi threw him a puzzled look. That was the name of a one of the lead Dark seekers wasn't it? How did it explain Kairi's actions? Unsatisfied by his answer she shook her head and leapt off the bed.

"I'm going after her."

She'd heard all she had come to hear; there was no more use in her staying.

"I doubt you'll get anything out of her." She heard Leon say, but she was out the door before anyone could brook more arguments. Perhaps if she'd bothered to notice, she would have seen the looks of recognition on Aerith and Yuffie's faces at the name of Rhapsody.

...:...

It took time, but eventually Hanabi's wonderings led her back to the first district. Where she found Kairi was standing, a lone figure in the concrete expanse devoid of any human activity. Standing at the top of the stair case, Hanabi watched her for a time, before gathering her nerves and descending the stairs and walking towards her.

Drawing to a stop a couple paces behind Kairi, Hanabi said tentatively.

"Kairi."

She didn't get a response, so she swallowed over a lump in her throat and walked around to Kairi's front, to see if that'd get a rise out of her. But the girl kept her eyes cast downwards, so Hanabi took hold of her chin and gently lifted it upwards so that she could look her in the eyes.

"Kairi." She said again, "what was that about?"

Shrugging Hanabi's hand off her chin, Kairi walked past her. It was clear to Hanabi that she had every intention of walking away and leaving this world in its entirety. So on instinct she reached out and took a hold of her shoulder. She knew of course that if Kairi truly wanted to, she could leave still leave anyway. In was completely within her power.

"Tell me." Hanabi told her flatly. One way or another she was going to get this out of her.

She felt Kairi tense under her grip, but eventually as the seconds passed by, the girl answered her.

"Rhapsody, nothing else."

Scowling at her answer, Hanabi bit back a harsher reply and said. "Leon already told me that, I came for a more precise answer, and I'll have it if you so please."

Was it her, or did Kairi snort at that. Whatever Leon had told her had definitely upset her something horrid, this wasn't like her friend at all.

"If you want a clue, I'll tell you this. Rhapsody, the horrible person she is, was my mother. Not that she ever did her job, but related we are. You'll find that whatever she does has a habit a relating back to me."

Hanabi froze.

'What did she say?'

Shocked, she drew back and brought her hands to her chest.

'Her mother?' Did she say? 'Rhapsody-her mother?'

This had been the least expected of answers.

"How come you've never told me that?" She asked in the sheer disbelief of it all.

Considerably less spirited now Kairi answered, "That you're related to one of the top dogs of Dark seekers is but anything to brag about, I preferred to keep it to myself."

"Who knows about it?"

"Hardly anyone. Your parents, Leon's group, but it was your dad who told them." This she said almost sadly.

"No one else?" Hanabi asked, wanting to know all that she could get out of her.

Kairi frowned, then crossed her arms as if contemplating telling her something, then said. "There was one other, but I never told her a word of my parentage, she just knew."

"Who?"

"A women who called herself Absinth."

That made Hanabi pause. Now that was a name she knew, not that she'd say so, but recognition of it rang through her mind clear as a bell.

After that, Hanabi didn't question her anymore, and it wasn't long before Kairi begun to walk off again.

"You going?" Was the last thing she said to her?

"Yes, there's nothing more for me to be told here."

Kairi disappeared in a flash of brightness as she summoned a portal of light to whisk her away. They didn't say goodbye.

...:...

Reappearing in the alleyway swathed in light, Kairi landed clumsily on the ground. She swayed slightly but didn't fall. Casting her eyes around her, she checked if anyone had been around to see her appear and breathed out a sigh of relief when she didn't spot anyone. The lateness of night made the chance of anyone being out small, but the paranoia was always there.

Leaving the dark alleyway behind her, Kairi made her way back to her house. In a matter of seconds the structure came into view out of the darkness, but something in her peripheral vision made her halt.

Turning her head to the side, her eyes settled upon a single figure sitting on a shed in someone's backyard. That wasn't why she stopped though, not exactly anyway. Sure someone in a backyard this time of night was a little strange, but she'd seen worse. No. It was who this person happened to be.

Riku.

Curious as to why he was out here now, she walked towards him

"Riku?" She asked tentatively when she approached him.

He didn't respond to her of course, but it wasn't like she thought he would. He didn't talk, hadn't in a long time. She remembered a time when he did, but that was years ago. He'd long stopped socialising too, now he just distanced himself from every one. It hurt the people close to him a lot. It was why Sora cringed at the very mention of his name.

Seeing that he wasn't going to acknowledge her, Kairi watched Riku just a little longer before turning around and walking in the direction of her house. As she walked she felt his eyes on her, but she ignored his look and went on her way.

Of course had she looked back she would have seen the hatred in that gaze, the anger too. As well as another emotion too far off to reach. Vaguely, she heard him slip off the shed roof and disappear into the night.

Reaching her home, Kairi climbed in through her bedroom window. She took off her white dress and exchanged it for a nightie and got into her bed. She brought her covers around her and slipped into a sleep that was unhindered by the dark truths she was blind to see. And dreamt. Dreamt of a woman with flowing black hair and glowing amber eyes. A woman who called herself Absinth.

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><p><em>And done, hope it was good.<em>

_Also I'm know Absinth is alchohol, but my brother loves the name and it got stuck in my head as I was creating this story and it found it's way in there and no matter what I did, I couldn't get it out._

_As always please review, I'll love you for it._

_Sayonara._


	3. Into darkness

_Hello everyone, Here is the third chapter._

_This chapter is the swallowing up of Destiny islands by the darkness, and my is it a 'fun' one. Riku creaps me out in this chapter, so it worries me that I could write him so easily. It was worst before I rewrote it, but he's still a little creapy._

_And just a note but your not meant to get what Kairi says in this chapter, you just have to let the meaning of her words come out in the story's course, sorry if that annoys you any._

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix does.**_

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><p><em><strong>Into darkness<strong>_

Kairi looked out across the landscape. No one had noticed her where she sat in the branches of a tree. Well perhaps Sora had, but if that was so he hadn't made a move to show it, but his eyes had wandered in her direction more than a couple times. The day had passed by quietly and without trouble, and yet there was this deep feeling of foreboding in the pit of her stomach that she couldn't explain. Frowning, she slipped off the branch and climbed down to the ground. Whatever it was it wasn't good, that she could tell no matter how vague it was.

Dusting herself off, she headed in the direction of her home. Sitting around and pondering about it here wasn't going to do anything. The most she could do was wait it out and see what would happen. She hated how useless that made her feel.

At the very least, though she didn't know yet, the end of the day would yield all answers.

...:...

Sora rolled over on his bed. The day had been uneventful. He'd hanged with Tidus, Selphie and Wakka for the day, but it'd still bored him. He grumbled to himself and turned over again. He closed his eyes, hoping that maybe tomorrow would be better.

He woke a little later to the sound of a storm, and realised he must have fallen asleep. He looked out his window to look at the sky. It confused him that there could be a storm now, because the weather had been fine the last time he looked outside. But what met his eyes wasn't what he had been expecting. It was clearly no normal storm. It was a black swirling cloud of god knows what that hung above the island where everyone played.

Snapping to full alertness, Sora lurched forward and grasped the window sill. His eyes glued on the form of the bizarre black cloud. Whatever it was, it wasn't good. He knew that. So why was he drawn to go towards it? He hadn't any idea. Staring at the storm his defences fell and he soon realised that fighting against its pull was useless.

From down the hall his mother yelled dinner was ready, but he was already gone.

Down to the shore he went, never taking his eyes away from the great black mass above the island, without an idea of what he was doing in the first place. He found a boat by the pier and used it to get across the waters. He docked it by the pier on the smaller island and got out.

Staring into the sky, he finally saw the greatness of the storm up close. The swirling mass was massive and encased the entire island in a dark purple-black glow. Tearing his eyes away from it, Sora surveyed the land around him. The force of the storm had torn many things up, but much of it remained intact. It felt eerie; he'd played here with his friends for as long as he could remember so it should have felt familiar despite everything that was happening. But it didn't, it felt alien, utterly alien, as if he'd never stepped foot in this place or even seen it before.

Gulping, he took a step forward, hoping he could find something that'd help explain what was happening. It didn't take too long of course, till his eyes drifted over to the small island that stood off from the mainland, connected by a little wooden bridge.

"No way." He murmured, unable to believe it. What could he be doing here? But there was no denying it. As clear as day, he was there.

"Riku."

What in the world could he be doing here? Sora thought. Had he been drawn here like he had been, or was it something else entirely. No matter, the only way to get any answers was to go there and ask. It was getting a reply that was the problem.

To the island Sora went, halting as he reached the start of the wooden bridge in hesitation, before starting forward once more. Slowing as he approach Riku, he soon came to a stop. The older boy had his back turned to him, but all the same, Sora had a strong feeling that he knew someone was there. Specifically him.

"Riku?"

There was no response like he expected. What was the use of questioning a mute he asked himself knowing the futileness of it all, and yet there was a voice in his mind that told him to keep on.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, listening to the latter of the two thoughts.

Silence reigned for a time afterwards; and Sora had a mind to give up on the venture, until words passed through Riku's lips, the first words he'd heard him speak in nearly a decade.

"For the same reason you are here, I was drawn here, but for a different reason."

A good minute passed before Sora got a hold of his words again. That was the first sentence he'd heard Riku speak since he went mute, but there was something about it, though he couldn't say what. It wasn't the content exactly, but the way it was spoken. Sora had a feeling that this memory wouldn't come out a good one.

"What?" he questioned, it being all he could muster.

"This world is falling to darkness; I came to see it fall. I am here to be a spectator."

"What the?" That just didn't seemed to make sense, what was he talking about. He'd heard plenty of darkness mumbo-jumbo from some of the old women on the island, but he'd never taken it for anything more than that, just words from old women with nothing else to do. Perhaps he should rethink that.

"What do you mean, why is this happening?" Why did he have a feeling that Riku was smiling?

"Because my master wishes it so."

"Who?" could this get any more confusing?

"You don't need to know, if you're going to fall with this island nothing matters." Riku paused for a moment, as if he was listening to something, but he resumed talking before Sora could take in the meaning of his words. "That is, of course, if you're not willing to join him, he sees potential in you, he thinks you might one day serve him well."

This time Sora didn't voice his confusion, he just let it show on his features as Riku turned around and held out a hand in offering. Who was he talking about? Why was this happening to his island just because one person wanted it to? And why in the world would he join them if this was what they were doing to his island? Then he recalled what Riku had just said 'if you're going to fall with this island-'. But if he fell with this island wouldn't the others as well? He couldn't see why they'd be excluded.

"Riku, what's going to happen to all the others, if this island goes what will happen to them?"

Horrifically, Riku smiled "They'll disappear with it of course, you too if you don't take this offer."

Sora stomach sank. He'd been afraid of that. Scared of the fate he was facing, he panicked, and despite how every bone in his body screamed at him he shouldn't, he reached out for Riku's hand. As he did, shadows erupted from the ground around them. They wrapped around him and Riku and dragged them down. Scared out of his mind, completely ignorant of what was happening other than what Riku's cryptic words told him, Sora had no idea what to do. He never did manage to grasp Riku's hand before the shadows engulfed them.

For a while all was black. But then a light appeared and brought him fourth, and before he knew it he was back on the island. Riku was gone. He looked around for him but couldn't see him anywhere.

Noticing a weight in his hand he looked over at his right hand and saw that he now carried, for lack of a better word, a giant key. It had a golden handle and was silver down the length of it. There was also a strangely shaped pendent hanging off a silver chain attached to the handle.

Lifting it to his face and inspected it closely. He had wondered if tonight could get any weirder, well it just did. And if giant keys weren't enough, at a chill down his spine Sora twisted around, only to be faced with a small army of little black monsters.

He froze at the sight of them. There were so many, how could he possibly fight them all. They were popping up all over the island; everywhere he looked they were there. Nevertheless, the old voice of common sense was there at the back of his mind telling him he wouldn't get anywhere by standing there, fighting was his only choice. So gathering his courage about him, Sora lifted the giant key and moved forwards, using it as a sword against all the monsters.

They fell left and right and he soon had gotten to the end of the wooden bridge, but from there he didn't know where to head. He wasn't sure he could make it back to his boat with all these monster about, and he didn't see the use either. Riku had talked like it was this island's apocalypse. So where was the use in it all? He was about to give up, when a voice floated down on the wind and said: 'go to the secret place'

Beyond questioning where it came from, Sora tried to figure out what it was talking about, before he remembered the place down by the waterfall where he had played in with Riku, and for the first few months she had been here, Kairi as well. He hadn't stepped foot in that place in years, but he remembered now that he and Riku had nicknamed it 'The secret place'.

With that place in mind, he cut through the black monsters and made his way through to the little hidden cave in the nook of a giant tree. It was gruelling work, but he eventually forced his way through to the entryway of the secret place. Only, when he got there he noticed something he hadn't been expecting. In place of the small gap between the roots that served as entry, was a large ethereal door. It reminded him of one he'd seen in his dreams not a day back.

'The weirdness just keeps piling up doesn't it.' he though with a shake of his head. Oh well, what was he to do about that now but go along with it?

Pushing the door forward a small earthen tunnel was revealed. Sora was glad of the familiarity of it as he crouched down and walked one foot at a time through its confining length. Straightening out when he reached the end of it, Sora looked around the small rock cavern. It was diminutive in size and had many roots criss-crossing the walls. But its most noticeable features were the drawings that adorned its walls. They were childish drawings that had been scratched onto the walls with stones many years before by him and Riku back when they were friends. Kairi had added to them too. Back when she got along with them before everything went bad, and both her and Riku withdrew from everyone. He guessed tonight gave him some answers for their actions, because just like Riku had been here in the epicentre of the danger, so stood Kairi right in front of him.

She had her hand pressed against this strange looking wooden object at the end of the cavern that Sora had always presumed was a door of some kind, not that it had ever opened. Hearing him approach, Kairi lifted her head. She twisted the top half of her body just enough so that she could see him in her peripheral. She didn't seem surprised to see him, and quickly turned back around to stare at the door once more. Sora took a step closer, wondering what exactly it was she was doing here. He was about to ask her before she beat him to the punch and said,

"I was wrong."

Her words didn't explain anything to him. But what drew his attention to them was how her voice had been steeped in tears as she spoke. While they didn't make any sense to him, he knew that whatever she was talking about meant a great deal to her. So he asked,

"About what?"

Kairi clenched her hand into a fist and blew out a painful sigh and turned around. There were no tears in her eyes, but she looked close to them, "Everything." She breathed.

Sora remained confused, and was fighting the temptation to question her further on her words, but she continued talking.

"I failed Sora, I failed. The only thing I was useful for and I failed. The only thing I could protect and I failed. This place fell to that vile person long ago, I just never saw it. There's nothing I can do anymore, this is the fate of this world, but…I don't want this to happen. I don't want to watch this place disappear into the darkness. I may not have been born here but this is my home, it has been since I first came here, I don't want that person to take this away from me. They've already taken so much."

Contrary to his hopes, her words only served to confuse him further. He wondered how they may be connected to what Riku had told him. All this talk of the world falling, what did it mean exactly? He didn't know. Though one thing he noticed that made him worry, was how Riku had spoken about what was happening like it was a good thing, when even someone as ignorant as him could see it wasn't, and how Kairi looked in the face of it despaired.

He looked back up to Kairi again, "kai-"

"Sora." She beat him to it, her eyes more anguished then he had seen them yet. They drifted over to the giant key he had in his hand in passing, but she didn't make note of it. Instead when she looked up to his eyes again, there was a look in them, one totally different from only seconds before, encouraging even. "I think they've bit off more than they can chew this time," she paused, "I know so." She took a deep breath and finished, "let us both fail." She said. "We must both fail; they cannot be allowed to succeed."

"Kairi?" He guessed that tonight wouldn't be one of explaining after all, that he might as well give up for now and go along with it, not that it made her words any less incomprehensible.

Kairi's eyes drifted to side airily. "I can't stay here any longer, I must go." With her head tilted off to the right, her eyes snapped back to him, and she lifted her hand to him like Riku had. "Understand, like it is this world's fate to be engulfed in darkness, this is ours-come with me."

Sora was severely tempted to take her hand and accept her offer but hesitation stalled him. And before he could get past it and take hold of Kairi's hand, the wooden door behind her burst open and a dark force surged force and consumed the room. He lost track of Kairi in the confusion, but as the power of the force blew him back and covered his world in darkness, he heard her scream and saw a flash of light.

When he next came to, he was on a little spit of land made of sand and debris. As he took a look over the edge, it was with horror he realised that this was all that was left of the islands. What's more as he came to stand a monstrous roar sounded off behind him, he twisted around only to come face to face with a huge black monster that resembled a twisted version of the smaller ones that had harassed him earlier. He also remembered that it was the same monster from his dream yesterday. He quailed to realise that such a monster was real.

He also despaired when he looked around and the reality crashed down on him that he would have to fight it. He backed off to the edge of the clump of land and gulped. He brought up the giant key as the monster stained the air with another one of its cruel roars. There was no getting out of this he conceded so gathering all the courage he possessed, he lifted the key high and fought.

The monster slammed its colossal hands down on the ground in attempts to squash him but he dodged every time, if only barely. He took the chances afforded to him to attack when its hands were lodged in the sandy ground. In its pain it lunched small crystalline lasers up into the air, much to Sora surprise, but they were evaded as well for the most part. It even brought up from pools of darkness some of the small black creatures that had attacked him before. These when spawned along with the crystalline lazars made for trouble, as it became hard to dodge one when the other existed and by the end of his fight Sora was exhausted and hurting from more places then he cared to count. But he was rewarded as with one final stroke of his blade, the monster rent the sky with last a piercing scream and collapsed, the darkness taking it back for its own.

Out of breath, Sora fell to his knees by a plank of wood that stuck up out of the ground. He took in deep gulps of air trying to get his breathing back to normal. Resting a hand of the adjacent wooden plank he looked up into the sky. The storm was right about him. Staring at it curiously, wondering what on earth it really was he felt a sudden pull. And he was sucked upwards. He tried to halt his passage by grabbing onto the plank of wood but his grip faulted at it slipped.

And it all went black.

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><p><em>Hope you liked it and as always please leave a review.<em>

_Sayonara._


	4. A world that's not your own

_Hello everyone, here's the fourth chapter for you._

_This one a big information chapter, but I'm a little worried it could have been written better. If theres anything you don't get or worst I've forgotten to explain pm me and I'll tell you what I can._

_Hope you enjoy the chapter._

**_Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Square enix does._**

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><p><em><strong>A world that's not your own<strong>_

Footsteps resounded on the tiles of a small blue walled room. Glancing to the side, Hanabi turned away from the window to find the form of Minnie standing in the doorway, her long blonde hair flowing free down her back. This night she was garbed in long pale pink dress with a hot pink sash circling her slight waist. She had her hand placed on the frame of the door, a sad look on her face.

"Mi-chan" Hanabi said hesitantly from her spot in front of the window. Looking up at her face, Minnie met Hanabi's eyes and the younger girl was struck by the sadness that she saw in them.

"Are Luke and Crowtassha gone?" Hanabi asked.

Minnie nodded. "Yeah, they'd most likely be there by now."

Hanabi nodded at her in turn, returning her gaze to the starry sky outside of the window. Minnie approached her from behind and placed her hands on the smaller girl's shoulders.

"What are you looking at, Hanabi?" She queried.

"Stars are disappearing," she said, gesturing to the sky looming above them.

Looking up to view the sky, Minnie whispered, "So Micky was right then. It really is happening, the darkness is taking over."

Twisting out of her hold, Hanabi turned on her heel to face Minnie. She was forced to look upwards as there was a considerable size difference between them; Minnie was in no way a short woman.

"It won't take over if we can stop it. You know yourself how hard your husband has worked with this stuff; you should know that he'll never give up as long as there's hope, Luke and Crowtassha included." After she received no answer, Hanabi tried a different angle. Taking clear note of the sad look plastered on Minnie's face she asked.

"What's wrong Mi-chan? You've been so sad lately."

After a brief silence on Minnie's part, with a small twist of her mouth, she answered, "You want to go with them don't you? You can't stand being left on the sidelines."

Pausing, Hanabi bit her lip, knowing she'd been caught out.

"Would you have left here without telling me, like all the other times?" Minnie asked.

"No!" Hanabi quickly answered. "I would never do that, this isn't just going to Traverse Town to talk to Leon, it's much more!"

"War," Minnie uttered into the room. Pulling away from Hanabi, she stepped past her to stand in front of the window. Placing her hands atop the window sill she continued on to say, "I've witnessed it before you know, but it was never this bad."

Turning back around to stand by her side, Hanabi copied Minnie's movements and placed her hands on the sill.

"That's when you met my mother, wasn't it?"

Minnie nodded. "It was, but I'd already known of her, and Micky had met her numerous times."

Hanabi nodded to this, thankful of at least some information about her mother. Not much was ever said about her around here. Micky had mixed feeling about her and Minnie had a scarcely hidden hatred of the women. It confused her what in the world possessed them both to take in her only child. Ending that thought, Hanabi returned her attention back to Minnie.

"Mi-chan, why are you talking to me about this anyway?" She queried.

"I give you my blessing if you want to go."

"What?" Hanabi exclaimed, confused; Minnie had always been strongly opposed to her ever being involved in this, so what had caused this change of heart?

"If you want to go, you can." She stopped short, before gradually going on to say, "Truth be told, Micky convinced me months ago when everything started going bad, but it was on one condition."

"What, what was it?" Hanabi asked.

Pulling what looked to be a moderately sized rectangular jewellery box out of the hot pink slash on her dress, Minnie held it close and answered, "He wants you to find Esper."

Shocked by her admittance and sincerely taken aback, Hanabi was unable to reciprocate a response and stood stock still as Minnie took the jewellery box away from her chest and held it out to her. A sad, almost doubtful, look passed over her face as Hanabi's hands reached out for the small box.

"Here."

...:...

A tall girl wearing a loose white sleeveless top with blue embroidery on its bottom edge, and denim shorts skipped through the first district of Traverse Town. Stopping, she stretched her arms up in boredom. To the side of her a wolfhound sniffed around the ground carelessly, enjoying the change in scenery. The girl sighed and complained to the dog beside her, "Oi, why do Leon and the others have to change position every time we come around here anyway? It's a pain to find them; don't you agree Hades?"

Turning to face her other, silent, companion, she gave him a smile and weaved her hand through her short black locks, playing with one of her two dark blue bows that adorned either side of her head.

"So where do you reckon we go now, eh?"

No answer.

"Still not talking are ya?" She said, shrugging. "Well, I guess I shouldn't be expecting any different after years of perpetual muteness but could you at least offer somewhere to look." Again no answer, instead he gestured to the entire area around them.

Frowning, clearly frustrated, the girl crossed her arms and complained, "You could've been a little more helpful you know, Luke. You just happened to be gesturing to the entire district and beyond."

Luke shrugged and walked past Crowtassha only to be stopped by a gasp. Twisting around to face her, Luke walked back a couple steps and threw her a questioning look. Picking up to what he was inquiring; Crowtassha pointed to the sky and explained to him, "A star disappeared."

For a moment there was a curious expression on his face as he looked up to the sky but it was gone the next like it had never been there at all. Still staring at the sky, Crowtassha whispered, "The worlds."

A quick tap on her shoulder from the boy beside her snapped her out of her trance and Crowtassha looked back down to face an impatient Luke, looking like he wanted nothing but to move on. Following that sign, she began to move toward the steps in front of them both, mumbling all the while, "Gee, what's got into you all of a sudden?"

And once again, despite the fact that she knew he could hear her clearly, Luke made no attempt to answer, he just followed along with her silent as always. Following the path beyond the steps both of them entered the second district, leaving whatever lay in the first district behind them.

...:...

Hades stood behind the large wooden doors of the second district, sniffing around in curiosity, left behind by Luke and Crowtassha. A certain smell caught his attention so he jumped off the higher ledge and landed next to a dark alley to follow it. Sniffing around he picked up the scent again and followed it towards its source. Entering the alley, Hades soon came across a boy. He realised quickly that he was unconscious; which caused him to wonder how and why he'd gotten here. Barking at the boy with his loud deep bark he sought to wake him up.

He was successful, and the boy soon began to rouse.

...:...

As his mind slowly came back to the present, Sora groggily opened his eyes to world beyond. What first met his eyes what not what he would have expected.

An enormous back dog with scruffy fur sat in front of him, poking at the ground at his feet with its long snout.

A little taken aback by the sight, he rubbed a hand across his eyes to test it was really there. It was; the dog remained in its spot, staring at Sora with its dark black eyes. It was then when he noticed where he was: a dark secluded alleyway. Sora just about gawked as he looked over the short concrete paved street with and a wooden blockade at the end. Standing up, he began to wonder where on earth he was, or better yet how he got here in the first place.

Glancing down at the large dog, which even while simply standing on four paws still easily reached his stomach; he asked knowing it was useless, "Where am I?"

He hadn't expected the dog to react, but contrary to his belief it barked at him and turned around to face the opposite side of the alley. It approached a large crate that lay against the side of a small building and jumped onto it, then proceeded to jump onto a higher ledge. Once the dog reached the high ledge, it barked down to Sora and turned away and walked out of his line of sight.

Staring up at the ledge in curiosity, Sora presumed that the dog wanted him to follow him. But a louder voice in him said it wanted to find out where he was, and to do that he needed to find someone who actually spoke English. So following the dog came later. Casting a look across the alley one last time before he left it behind him, the only thing he could surmise was that, one way or another, he wasn't in his own world anymore. Walking closer to the small building to the side of the alley, he quickly found the door and decided to go inside. Upon opening the door, he found himself within a small room with a fireplace to the right of the room, and a couch and a decent sized table in the middle. To the left of the room there was a bench top with a man standing behind it.

The man was of decent height and wore blue pants with a white top. His hair was light blonde and he was smoking a cigarette. Glancing quickly around the room once more, Sora walked towards the man and asked, "Hey, um, where am I?"

The man responded with a, "Hmm, new around here are ya?"

Sora nodded. "I guess, but where exactly is here?"

"Traverse Town," he answered, "and I'm only guessing from yer questions, but I say it's safe to say you're from another world."

Sora nodded again and questioned "I am, actually, but how did I get here?"

The man shrugged. "Wouldn't know, I just met ya. But everyone tends to end up here eventually, so I guess you're just one of them."

The man's last sentence propelled Sora's mind into a different train of thought. He'd said everyone ends up here eventually, so could that mean that someone from his islands could have ended up here?

_'Maybe even those two,'_ Sora thought thinking of his lasts memories of the island. Riku and Kairi. All the common sense in his body told him that it'd be best to stay away from Riku, given his experience with him back on the island. His attention was brought back to reality when the man across from him coughed purposely. Snapping his head back in the man's direction, Sora apologised, saying, "Ah, I'm sorry I was just thinking about some stuff."

"Along the lines o' what?" The man asked.

Contemplating what to tell him exactly, Sora settled on "I was just thinking, but could my friends have ended up here as well?"

Even as he said it, he knew as strange as it was his mind was more focused on Riku and Kairi.

Trying to find Riku was something every part of his mind screamed against, but Kairi, on the other hand was a different story. A part of him had always thought that she had always kept secrets to herself, and tonight hadn't just hinted that that was true, it had given him undeniable truth that she knew enough to know exactly what was happening. And that was information he wanted dearly wanted to know.

The man didn't notice anything about the half lie, he only responded to the question with a simple answer: "Suppose so," he said, scratching his chin, "but you won't know unless you look, now won't you?"

Sora nodded once more at the man and took his advice. "Guess so."

Walking back to the door, he stopped with his hand on the handle. Tilting his head backwards to look at the man, Sora asked, "Hey, what's your name by the way?"

The man grunted and answered, "Cid, Cid Highwind."

Sora nodded at him one last time before heading out the door "Mine's Sora."

After heading out the door, Sora cast a look about the area he'd found himself in. Directly in front of him were a series of stone steps that led to a large concrete paved area that was filled with a grass patch, a decently sized area that housed a series of tables and chairs, and furthest from him a gigantic wooden door.

Taking in the sight of the place, Sora quickly remembered the black dog that had woken him up. Looking to the side he found another series of stone steps and walked up them. After ascending them he found himself with a dead end to one side of him and more stairs on the other. Following that path, he quickly came across large wooden doors. Sora assumed that this was what that dog was trying to show him.

Looking over the area quickly, he saw that the dog was no longer there and was nowhere to be seen. Giving a moment's thought to where it could have gone; Sora stepped forward and opened the wooden doors. Once he stepped through he was met with a sight he didn't want to see again. He saw a man run across the path in front of him, only to be struck down by one of the little black monsters that had plagued his island. This monster was a little different in looks but it held the same dark aura that enveloped the others.

Staring at the scene ahead of him, he watched helplessly as the man tripped and was set upon by the monster. After being attacked the man seemingly disappeared into thin air, a heart floating up to the sky in his place.

Sora watched as the black monster took the heart for its own and left. Stepping forward hesitantly, he approached the edge of the higher ledge he was placed on, and peered over. With nothing of much importance meeting his watchful gaze, Sora took to scanning the area around him. This place was considerably different than the previous one he'd just left. Currently he stood on a higher ledge that circled a lower ground expanse that took up most the area. There were buildings to either side of him, with an alley splitting through a group of them to the right of him. The entire place was once again concrete paved, with steps leading down to the ground expanse on the end of the higher ledge's right where it stopped it give way for the alley. Directly at the end of the area was a large white building of considerable proportion, with large stained glass windows down the side.

Pushing away from the edge, Sora decided to take a look around.

That was a wrong move.

Sora hadn't taken more than a couple steps when those small black monsters appeared again, the exact ones from the island. The instant they lurched at him, the key he had used back on the island appeared in his hands once more. Surprised by its sudden appearance, Sora's eyes widened for a moment before he took advantage of its presence and swung it at the monsters. The blade met with one of them and sent it flying into the wall opposite them, as it struggled to get back up; the others began to strike at Sora. He batted them back with the key one by one until they were all taken down and disappeared into blackness.

Swinging the key up onto his shoulder, Sora breathed out a sigh of relief.

Maybe exploring the area was not the smartest idea. But as dangerous as he now knew it was, he couldn't fight his curiousness of it. And in the end, that curiosity won out and he strode forward once more to look around.

He didn't find that much of interest. The area was deserted save for the black monsters that were adamant on attacking him. As he continued to look around the area he found himself growing bored with the unsuccessful results. Giving up, he found himself walking back towards the door that had led him here. After a couple more fights with the black monsters Sora reached the door and entered the first area again. Slightly paranoid that those black monsters were going to jump out and attack him again, he began tracing back the path back to the front of the shop he'd been in before with the key still in hand.

Looking over the expanse that lay beyond the stone steps in curiosity, Sora decided to head down them and have a better look around, seeing as he really didn't have anything else he could do. But as he was about to walk down the steps he heard a voice call out from beside him.

"They'll come at you out of nowhere" a clearly male voice rang out.

Twisting over to face the source of the voice, Sora questioned, "Who are you?"

Ignoring his question the man continued, "And they'll keep on coming at you as long as you continue to wield the keyblade." As he raised a hand to his face, the man went on, "But why? Why would it choose a kid like you?"

Ignorant of the man's reason for questioning, Sora asked him, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Never mind," the man countered as he began to walk towards Sora. "Now let's see that keyblade."

As he reached his hand forward Sora quickly yelled, "What? There's no way you're getting this!"

Stopping in his path, the man resigned to swinging his own monster of a blade up onto his shoulder.

"Fine," he said. "Have it your way." And with that he swung the gun-blade forward at Sora in attack.

The battle was short lived as the man threw stronger and faster attacks then anything Sora could muster, and soon enough, with one hard hit to the head, Sora found himself caught in the dark embrace of unconsciousness.

...:...

Treading hesitantly through a dark path that lay on the furthest side of the second district which was only reachable through a door hidden in the shadows of a fountain, Crowtassha walked side by side with her silent companion. Holding both hands behind her back, her eyes scanned across the area in search.

So far they hadn't come up with any results on where on earth Leon and the others were located, and not even Cid had been able to help them on this one. She was beyond frustrated with their tedious search, and as Hades had long since disappeared it was beginning to bug her not having someone with her that would at least make a sound when she talked to them. Breathing out a quick sigh, she caught Luke jumping in fright in the corner of her eye. Curious to see what had scared her rather stoic friend, she turned around, finding something she wouldn't have guessed at all.

"Aerith!" She exclaimed happily, seeing the brown haired girl behind her.

She hugged her friend around the middle. "My, my you're a sight for sore eyes." She said a little too loudly.

Putting a finger over her lips to signal her to be quieter, Aerith whispered, "Sorry it took so long to find you, but we have to be quiet, there are dark seekers in this town. We need to be careful."

Nodding in understanding, Crowtassha asked, "So where to, then?"

Nodded at her request, Aerith backed off towards the door at the end of the alley. "Come with me."

...:...

His mind slowly coming back into focus, Sora sat up and looked around. He soon registered that he was lying on a bed within a small room, but exactly where that was, was beyond him. Turning his head at a sound to his left, Sora found himself staring up into the face of young girl with boys' length black hair. The girl was wearing green crop top held up by two blue straps, beige shorts and a blue belt. There was a bright yellow scarf wrapped around her neck and a grey headband around her forehead. She wore large orange gloves, with darker coloured wrapping that reached her shoulders and white thigh-high socks and orange shoes.

Still a little disoriented after being knocked out, when Sora went to ask her who she was it all came out sounding like jumbled up gibberish. The girl laughed at his fail and looked backwards to someone else in the room.

"Uh, Squall?" She said, "I think you hit him a little too hard."

"That's Leon," another voice range out. Recognising it instantly, Sora quickly looked up to face the man who knocked him out. Realising why he was looking at Leon with such fright the girl laughed and reassured him, "Don't worry, he won't hurt you."

Pausing for second, she corrected herself. "Well, at least not anymore he won't."

Sora wasn't too sure of her words. Still he didn't see a way at of this situation, and she seemed nice enough, he might as well find out where he was and who they were. So he asked "Who are you?"

"Me?" The girl struck a pose and stated boldly, "I am the great ninja Yuffie." Pointing over to the man by the door, she said considerably more quietly, "And that sourpuss over there is Leon."

Nodding, Sora tried to ask his next question, that of his whereabouts, but the man, Leon, interrupted him "Enough with the introductions Yuffie. We have more important matters to speak about, like why on the earth the Keyblade chose nothing but a kid."

Before Sora could wrap his head around his words, a third voice rang out across the room, "You should know better than that Leon, don't go writing him off as nothing but some useless little kid."

He recognised that voice. Looking over to a place at the back of the room he had neglected to notice, his eyes fell on her.

"Kairi"

Looking up to his face, the girl smiled and pushed herself off the wall and walked over to him "Wondered when you'd notice me."

Surprised by her appearance Sora blinked his eyes twice as if he was seeing things.

Giving him another smile, Kairi reassured him, "I'm really here you know you don't have to do that. Back on the islands when the darkness tried to suck me up I used a light portal to escape. And seeing as you're here it's safe to say you made it out fine." Pausing, she said in a quieter voice "But I guess now I kind of owe you an explanation about all the weird stuff I told you."

Sora answered her with an immediate yes; all of what had happened at the islands definitely needed an explanation. Kairi gave him a knowing nod as she backed off from the bed a bit.

Looking at her now, Sora noticed that she was actually wearing something quite different from the norm of what she wore, or at least what he thought was her norm.

She wore a short, sleeveless white dress in place of her normal jeans and long sleeved tops. It showed off her arms and the majority of her long legs down to the heeled black ankle boots on her feet. Her arms had multiple fabric armlets on them, most prominently a black one close to her right shoulder. Her ears were studded with an array of earrings and her lip was pierced on the left side with an unusual lip ring. It was a black with a golden snake encircling it, its colour a great contrast to her painted black lips. Taking in her different look he realised she had been wearing the exact same thing back at the islands; he had just been too distracted at the time to notice.

Noticing his mind wondering off, Kairi placed both her hands on her hips and her tilted her head at Sora. "Hey airhead, you do want your explanation don't you?" She asked him with a cheeky grin.

Snapping back to reality, Sora quickly nodded. "Of course."

"That's better," running a hand through her hair, Kairi muttered to herself, "Now where to start, where to start."

After a moment's thought she decided, "Well I guess first things first isn't it." Pausing for moment she went on, "Okay first, all of the people you see in this room have been involved in a war with the darkness for many years, me included."

Nodding his head, Sora waited for her to say more.

"You see, when I was little, our world was swallowed by the darkness, and I, as you'd already know, ended up at Destiny Islands when these guys ended up here at Traverse Town. I found them again when I was still getting the hang of using light portals. I, quite accidentally, transported myself here and met Leon's group again."

Noticing something in her sentence that he had no knowledge of, Sora was forced to interject "Question? What are light portals? You mentioned them before."

"Ah, sorry I kind of forgot to explain that. Light portals are simply a kind of portal that light users can create."

"Light users?" Sora inquired again.

"Oh, they're people who can wield light. They're pretty rare too, I mean the majority of all people have the ability to wield darkness if they so choose to, but only a select few can wield pure light."

"No boasting!" Yuffie burst out randomly at Kairi from where she sat at the end of the bed; who in turn pouted and retorted, "Awww, but it's so fun!"

Crossing her arms at the retort, Yuffie resigned to simply listening to the explanation, waiting for her next chance to catch Kairi out on something. Turning back to face Sora, Kairi smiled at him and apologised, "Sorry about that, but getting back to our original topic. You see, when I met up with Leon and that again, I was still real young, only around five years old, they could have sent me away, but they didn't. They had their reasons of course, the main being that they saw reason to protect me. I've come here a lot of times since, but it's mostly just so they can know that I'm alright, it's a plus that it keeps me up to date with all that's been happening in the worlds that they know of."

"Why did they want to protect you?" Sora questioned, not seeing what possible reasons they could have behind it.

A brief but sad expression passed over her face as Kairi's hand reached up to touch her left shoulder. Turning to her side slightly, giving Sora a clear of the shoulder, Kairi said, "See this?"

See that he did, and as Sora stared at the bizarre marking that laced across her left shoulder he wondered how on earth he hadn't noticed it before. It was a mark of an open eye, with dozens of ancient markings bridging out from it. Before he had the chance to ask what it was Kairi answered, "This is a 'mark', it's a form of ancient magic that dark beings brand humans of interest to them with, and as long as someone bares a mark, the one who branded them with always know where they are and what they're doing. This way we can never elude their sights. Leon's group prefer to keep an eye on me because of this. Because of certain 'qualities' I have, I've caught the eyes of more than a couple dark beings and it puts me in danger."

Kairi's mouth twisted in frown, it was obvious that this wasn't a subject she liked talking about. Shaking her head to rid herself of the darker emotions that had gathered about her, Kairi straightened up and continued her explanation. "But back to topic. Well you kinda know my story already so I guess now I have to tell you the other side of this fight, the people and things we're fighting."

Pointing to the giant key he'd got at the island, where it had been placed near the door she told him, "That thing there is the keyblade, it is a very powerful weapon, something of legend." She added seeing the sceptical look on Sora's face "It chooses its master, somebody can't just decide they want to wield it, and since it's chosen you, you're kinda stuck with it."

"The keyblade." Sora whispered to himself. He was curious about it now, if the fact that it was a giant key that had just materialized in his hand out of nowhere hadn't already made him so. Hearing him say those words, Leon pushed himself off the wall and went over to pick the weapon.

"Yes, the weapon for killing the heartless." He said, holding the weapon in his hands before it disappeared in a burst of light, but he didn't seem surprised by this. It was like he knew it was going to happen. But Sora on the other hand was surprised when it reappeared back in his hand in the same burst of light that it had disappeared from Leon's. Slowly getting over his shock Sora looked back at Leon.

"The heartless?" He said questioningly.

Leon nodded. "Those monsters that have been attacking you, they are scared of the keyblade, so they'll do anything to steal your heart and end you."

"They want to steal my heart," Sora repeated, surprised by the fact.

This time it was Kairi's turn to nod "Yes, heartless are creatures of darkness. They were humans who lost their own hearts to the darkness."

"So, if I lose my heart I'd turn into one of them?" Sora asked.

"Yes," Kairi answered, "simple as that."

Sora shivered at the thought "I'd hate to become one of those things," he told her.

In response Kairi just tapped the edge of the keyblade and replied, "Then it's as simple as getting them before they get you."

'How right' Sora thought. Simple logic was always right.

Looking back up at Kairi he asked, "Anything else I should know?"

"Definitely," Kairi answered. "Firstly," she said pointing at his keyblade, "We kept that away from you so it'd be harder for them to find you."

Sora dropped the keyblade almost instantly, causing Kairi to laugh.

"Sorry, didn't mean to frighten you, I was just letting you know." Adopting a more serious demeanour she said, "Now secondly, there are people who are directing the heartless, they're not just acting on their own."

"Who?" Sora asked.

"Mostly, it's a group that goes by the name of the Dark seekers."

"Who are they?"

"We don't really know that much about them actually, but they've been terrorising the worlds for many years, before any of us were born even. They went quiet for years but they have re-emerged recently and heartless activity has rocketed. They're some of the most annoying people you'll ever meet I assure you. So a piece of advice, when it comes to t hem don't feel bad to hit a girl." Kairi told him a little too cheerfully.

"To hit a girl?" Sora asked her

Smirking cheekily, Kairi informed him, "They're women, all of them."

That admittance made Sora pull a face, his mind couldn't help but go back to all the times over the years when his father had told him never to hit girls, or fight with them. Well, looks like all that's going down the drain.

"You should see your face right now, it looks so funny!" Yuffie exclaimed loudly from her position at the end of the bed.

Ignoring her Sora asked Kairi once more, "Anything else?"

Kairi thought for a moment, "No, nothing much, if there's anything more I'm forgetting I'm sure you'll find out on your own." She stopped then, with her mouth still open as if she was going to say more, but instead turned her head and scanned the room they were in fearfully.

"Leon." she stammered.

Jolting up from his position in the wall Leon grasped his gunblade just in time as a heartless appeared atop the table in the middle of the room. Swiping at it quickly, Leon successfully took it down, its remnants disappearing into the air. Turning back to face Sora he gestured for him to pick the keyblade saying in urgency, "Come on and grab that, there'll be more where that came from."

Nodding, Sora picked up the keyblade from where he'd let it fall to on the bed and leaped up to join Leon by the door. Opening it, Sora found that it lead out to a small balcony, which Leon proceeded to jump off to the ground below. By the time Sora peered over the edge he was long gone, taken away by his superior speed. After a moment's indecision, Sora lifted himself off the floor and jumped off the balcony, landing rather roughly on the ground below. Composing himself, Sora straightened out and followed the path he guessed Leon had taken.

...:...

Back in the small room, Kairi approached the balcony that both Sora and Leon had just jumped off. As she walked towards it, she was half aware of Yuffie running into the next room, probably to tell Aerith that the heartless had found them again.

Passing the threshold of the balcony, Kairi stepped out into the cold night air. Bracing herself against it, Kairi sighed to herself. She gradually lifted her head to gaze up to the star filled sky, whispering to herself as she did, "I wonder, but will he be able to save you?"

...:...

Crowtassha crossed her arms pondering what she had been told.

"So this Ansem guy, he wrote a report on the heartless. So where is it?" She asked.

Aerith shrugged her shoulders and told her from her seat on a bed, "We don't know, its pages were scattered."

Crowtassha thought on that sentence for mere seconds before she said to Aerith, "Why don't we find it, then?" A slightly annoyed look from Luke quickly stopped her in her tracks, and Crowtassha, knowing Luke like the back of her hand, swiftly translated the look for the confused Aerith.

"Ah yeah, we were sent here to find someone weren't we?"

"Who?" Aerith queried.

"The king called them the key but we're kind of in the dark about who he's referring to," Crowtassha admitted.

Thinking this over for a second, Aerith offered them, "Do you think he was talking about a key bearer?"

Crowtassha sighed and sat on the bed next to Aerith, watching Luke in the corner of her eye as he stepped closer to door to listen in on a conversation going on in the other room.

"We figured that out pretty quickly, but it doesn't really narrow it down does it?"

"That it doesn't," Aerith agreed with a nod.

The room went quite for a moment as there was the sound of a commotion in the other room. Waiting to see if it would quiet down, Crowtassha and Aerith shared a moment of silence. Just as Crowtassha was about speak up again, Yuffie burst into the room, slamming the door right into Luke's face. Crowtassha flinched; he'd most likely be pissy about that for a while, but on the bright side: at least he couldn't complain about it out loud. Returning her focus to the situation at hand, Crowtassha stood up off the bed and listened to what Yuffie had to say. The girl came to halt in front of Aerith and told her in urgency, "Aerith the heartless have found us again, we need to get out of here before they attract the dark seekers."

Jumping up from the bed Aerith followed Yuffie back through the door to the other room, questioning her as she did, "Where's Leon Yuffie?"

"Already gone, Sora should be with him."

"Sora?" Aerith said questioningly, trying to think of where she'd heard the name before. "Wait, you don't mean the boy from Kairi's island, do you? How'd he get here? And why is he with Leon?"

"He was sucked through the darkness when his world was destroyed, ended up here," she answered quickly. "But guess what Aerith? The kid's a key bearer."

Aerith stopped dead, taken aback by the admittance. She glanced back at Crowtassha, who looked just as surprised as she was, seeing as Yuffie's words had just completely narrowed down her and Luke's search. Gesturing to her with her arm Aerith told her, "Go find them."

Crowtassha nodded to her as Yuffie pulled Aerith away into the next room with her.

After they left the room, the door was left to gradually inch forward to reveal the highly disgruntled form of Luke pushed up against the wall. Crowtassha held in a great laugh as she watched Luke peel himself off the wall, knowing that laughing would only make him more peeved than he already was.

"Yuffie's dead to you now, isn't she?" She said it as a statement of fact rather than a question, knowing how much of a person Luke was to hold grudges. The disgruntled frown was enough for her to know the answer. Holding in yet another laugh that threatened to bubble over at that face, Crowtassha pulled him away from the wall saying, "Come on lets go find that kid. If he isn't the one the king wanted us to find I'm gonna jump off a cliff."

Quickly shrugging off her hand Luke walked past her and signed to her in sign language_ 'No way in hell you would.'_

"Who's to say" Crowtassha argued with him, knowing that he was right in every single way possible.

Exiting the building swiftly, they made their way across town in search.

...:...

Lightly tapping Kairi on the shoulder, Aerith sought to bring the girl out of the curious trance she'd found her in. Flinching at the contact, Kairi eyes shot up to Aerith in shock. Calming when she found she was in no danger, Kairi directed her eyes downwards and resigned to being silent.

Tapping her on the shoulder again, Aerith gently told her, "Kairi we have to go, we can't risk being caught by the dark seekers."

Kairi didn't verbalise a response, she just backed away from the balcony and turned to face the door and strode over to where Yuffie waited for them. Aerith watched as the girl walked away, wondering as she did so, what had caused her mood to change from how she'd been when she'd seen her earlier that night. She could guess, of course, that this mood had many catalysts. The loss of her world, which had always been a sanctuary in times like these, was definitely one. And her failure to do anything about it was doubtlessly weighting heavily on her. There were many smaller reasons too, but in the end it would always equal the same. Kairi had spent her life just bearing it with a smile, but you could only take so many blows before you broke. She just hoped that she'd recover from this; she didn't want to see the girl suffer anymore.

If only life would allow that.

...:...

Laying her weight against the railing of the small balcony she was on, Crowtassha blew out a quick sigh and caught her breath before straightening up. She was getting tired of all the fights they were having with all the heartless that were jumping out at them. Looking to her companion, she caught him looking over the balcony's edge curiously. She ignored him for a second, instead of questioning the look and cast a glance along the small balcony, complaining, "We just can't catch a break can we? It's like this every single time we're here."

A burst of purple in the corner of her vision caught her eye and she tilted her head, just in time to see a pair of heartless running at them. It was too late to react though, as by the time she managed to warn Luke the heartless were upon them and quite literally batted them off the balcony. They were propelled into the air and landed harshly on the ground below; Crowtassha rose slowly to sit on her knees.

Stretching out her now arching limbs, she looked around for where her irritable companion had fallen. She had held a laugh in for dear life when her eyes located him, as he had landed smack bang on top of someone. Oh, dear lord, she would never let him live this one down even if it meant getting her head ripped off. It was then her eyes focused on what the person was holding.

Launching up to a standing position she called out to the still disoriented Luke, "Look! The key!"

Shaking his head to clear it, Luke sat up and pulled away from the person he'd crushed beneath him. Frowning to himself at actually landing on someone, his eyes landed on the keyblade in the boy's hand as he got up from the ground. His eyes widened in shock, he lifted himself off the cold ground and looked behind him to catch Crowtassha smiling triumphantly at him as she walking towards them. As she reached him and the brown haired boy she assumed to be the one Yuffie had called Sora, she held out her hand in greeting.

"Sorry about my friend here falling on you like that," she apologised "but-" It was just a thought, but she couldn't help but be bothered by why the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end.

'Oh shit' she thought grimacing at what she guessed now stood behind her, the looks of the two boys in front of her not helping. Spinning on her heel, Crowtassha was met with the sight of an inhumanly large purple cloud forming itself into the form of an equally large heartless.

Yeah, her and Luke really couldn't catch a break.

Tilting her head back to stare over at the boy with the Keyblade she asked him, "You up for a fight? 'Cause I could definitely use your help on this one."

Crowtassha almost laughed at the look plastered on his face. She guessed he wasn't all that used to heartless in the first place, but nevertheless he nodded his head at her. Turning her head back to face the monster of a heartless they were about to battle, she grinned to herself. Well, at least he was brave.

Bearing her eagle-like shield in hand, Crowtassha drew the small dagger sheathed at her wrist and prepared herself for the battle ahead. Behind her, Sora took the keyblade in hand as well, still confused as to who the other two people were, but extremely willing to except their help to beat this heartless. Lifting the keyblade higher he took on a battle stance as the giant heartless took a step towards them. It kept on jostling around its disconnected floating limbs about its larger main body, its entire form coloured purple with the tell-tale heartless simple emblazoned on it chest.

Sora could see the tall black-haired girl watching it closely, assessing it. The moment before it was upon them, she turned her head back to face both him and the other boy and told them, "Go for its limbs first, and then head for the main body so it won't have anything to attack us with." With that she rushed into the battle and bashed both her shield and dagger strongly into the heartless's right leg.

Following her lead both Sora and Luke attacked the heartless head on, Sora with blow after blow by his keyblade and Luke by series of magic attacks. As they worked on destroying its legs the heartless started spinning it hands around its body in circles, successfully making all three of them scatter away from it for safety. Not reacting fast enough, Sora was hit by its spinning hands and went smashing to the ground hard.

Jumping back into the fray Crowtassha covered him as Luke went to work helping him up and healing him. When he recovered, Sora joined Crowtassha and Luke once again in attacking its legs.

It proved to be dangerous work as the heartless kept up its attempts to smash them to pieces with its hands and had an easily-more-annoying habit of stamping its feet into the ground continuously.

After countless of blows to its legs they burst into nothingness and disappeared. With nothing to hold it up, the heartless simply fell to the ground, temporarily stunned. Taking the chance given to them, the three of them set to work attacking the main body with all they had. Blow after blow they landed on the heartless as it lay motionless on the ground, Luke's fire magic setting its immobile form aflame as Sora and Crowtassha's weapons reverberated loudly against its solid surface with each blow.

All too soon did the heartless raise from the ground and reinstated its dominant presence in the battle. With its legs gone, it lost the ability to hamper them with them as it stamped on the ground but it did continue to try and smash them away with its hands. Crowtassha was once again the first one to raise her weapon at the heartless, attacking its hands with all her might.

Soon following her, Sora and Luke began attacking as well and the three of them worked to send the hands the same way as the legs. Following the pattern of attacking and then scattering to avoid its spinning hands, they soon had the hands destroyed and they set to work on doing the same to the main body.

It was easy work from then on with no hands or legs attacking them to hinder their attacks.

Soon enough all their hard work payed off and a ring a light exploded from the heartless's core, followed by an even brighter light blasting out from where its head had been. A heart followed the light and floated into the sky until it disappeared and the heartless after it.

Catching his breath, Sora bent over hands on his knees and sucked in air. He felt a tap on his shoulder and looked up to see the brown haired boy standing over him, with a look in his eye that he couldn't quite read. Behind him, Sora could see the older girl jumping up in triumph, it was a queer sight, if you took into account that she looked easily in her late twenties.

Straightening up he returned his gaze back to the boy in front of him, asking him curiously, "So who are you guys anyway?"

He became confused when the boy didn't answer and only stared back at him in silence, it was only when the girl called over to him from her position a few metres away did he understand.

"Peridot's mute, he ain't gonna be talking to you anytime soon."

Sora watched as the boy threw the girl an infuriated look, to which she simply took with a smile and teased, "What? If you decide you're gonna wear a peridot jacket of all colours, I'm at least allowed to tease you for it."

Walking towards Sora, her silver boots clicking on the ground as she went, she held out her hand.

"Nice to meet you. You're Sora, right?" She asked curiously.

Sora nodded. "How do you know my name?"

"Yuffie mentioned it."

"Ah, so who are you two then?" He inquired.

Giving him a smile, she pointed over to the other boy, "Well this here is Luke, and as I've already told you, he ain't gonna talk to you no matter how hard you try, trust me I've been trying for the past ten years."

"Ten years?" Sora asked in disbelief.

"Yep, ten whole years and he still ain't talking."

Casting a quick look in the boy's direction for a moment, Sora returned his attention back to the girl. "And what's your name?"

"Crowtassha," she told him with a smile.

Did he hear that right? "Crowtassha?" He repeated just to be sure.

"Yeah."

"That's a bit weird isn't it?"

That's when the smile fell from her face and she twisted on her heel to face away from Sora, beginning to mumble angrily to herself.

"What's wrong with my name, everyone says that! I like my name, I think it's cool. Better than having some common, generic one."

To the side of the complaining Crowtassha, Sora could see Luke giving him a thumbs up, something that only succeeding in making him extremely confused.

"Luke's giving you a thumbs or something right now, isn't he?" Crowtassha asked him knowingly with her back still turned to the both of them.

"Yeah," Sora said still confused, "how'd you know?"

"Because he lives to annoy me," she said, seemingly calmer, turning back to face him.

"Okay," she said, pointing her finger in the air, "If you think my name's so weird, call me Crow."

"Okay, but that's still a little weird for a name," Sora told her.

Crowtassha scowled at him and said, with unneeded venom "Say one more thing against my name and I'll see to it you'll have an extremely painful death!"

Sora stared at her in shock at the threat, finding it extremely over the top for what he'd actually said. Calming down and directing her attention elsewhere, seemingly forgetting her earlier anger, Crowtassha scanned her eyes across the area, asking him, "So where's Leon anyway?"

"Right here!" Yelled an excited Yuffie as she jumped onto Crowtassha's back.

Sora watched on as the poor girl freaked and fell forward to the ground, landing on her face. She threw Yuffie of her in an extravagant movement before proceeding to yell at her no small number of vicious unneeded death threats. This went on for around a minute before Crowtassha eventually calmed down enough to ask "So you're under the radar again."

Yuffie nodded. "Yeah, we made it out safe, but it took me a million years to find this one here," she said pointing to Leon who stood not so far off from them.

Leon gave her a grunt in return, stepping closer to Crowtassha and saying, "I see you've found what you were looking for."

Confused at his words, Sora sounded, "Huh?"

"He means you Sora, me and Luke were sent here to find you." Crowtassha cleared up for him.

"Me?"

"Yep, well not you exactly but our king told us to find a key bearer that'd apparently be here. Not too sure how he knew that, but it's safe to say he was right." She said, tapping on the keyblade in Sora's hand.

Bringing the keyblade higher, Sora stared at its length. Dropping it down, he asked Crowtassha, "Who's your King?"

Twisting her head to look over at Leon, she asked, "Miss a few subjects, did we?"

"Well we didn't really have time to cover them," Yuffie answered for him.

Shrugging, Crowtassha casually responding to Yuffie as she turned to face Sora, "Guess so."

Balancing her weight onto her right leg she told him, "Our king's just our king really; the king of our world he is. He and Leon's group here are the two main fighters on our side in this war."

Nodding, Sora asked, "So why'd he send you after me?"

Crowtassha shrugged again and told him, "Not overly sure, he just up and disappeared a few days ago and left a letter telling us to find the key."

Facing towards Leon and Yuffie, instead of facing Crowtassha, Sora asked to no one in particular, "So what's going on with me then exactly?"

"A bit overwhelmed, are you?" Crowtassha asked him.

"A bit? Yesterday I was just some kid on an island." He told her.

Smiling at him she said, "That's fine then, I can see you have reasons to be. To put it simply, Fate's chosen you for a higher purpose; you were never just some kid on an island. It takes quite a person to be a key bearer and you're just such a person. The keyblade chose you, so you're stuck with it. Our king wanted us to find you, so we did, and together, me and Luke want you to help us find him."

Taking her words in, Sora bit his lip. Truth be told, he didn't really know what to do. Sensing his hesitation, Leon stepped forward and told him, "Go with them, it'll serve you better than staying here with us ever will."

That banished some of his hesitation, but it didn't disappear completely. Still, without his island to go back to, he didn't have all that many choices.

"You know, I guess I will go with you, seeing as there isn't much I can do here anyway."

"Good!" Crowtassha said clapping her hands. "You'll come with us then." Grabbing his hands she pulled him forward towards a large door he presumed led back to the area he'd first found himself, without even saying goodbye to Leon and Yuffie.

"And where exactly are you taking me?"

"To our ship, that way we can travel to other worlds."

"Other worlds," Sora said incredulously, before tonight to him they'd only existed in old stories, the idea of travelling in and between them was a little daunting in a way.

"Of course! There's not all that much we can do at this place, now can we?"

Letting go of his hand, Crowtassha stepped forward to open the door that stood blocking their way. As she battled to open the sizable door, Sora turned to see Luke walking up to them. When he came to a stop behind Sora, he signed to Sora in what he assumed was sign language. But not knowing a speck of what the signs meant, it was nothing but a bunch of random arm movements to him, and guessing by Luke's current demeanour, he guessed he knew that too. When the signs stopped and Sora gave no response, Luke pointed behind him to Yuffie jumping in the air waving to them.

Waving back to her as he heard Crowtassha get the door behind him, Sora took note of a second woman in the area. She had brown hair tied up in a plait that went down the length of her back and had a long pink dress with a chunky blue belt adorning her slender form. Before he had time to question who she was, Crowtassha called over to him from her location at the door, "Hey, you comin' or what?"

Turning back to face her he nodded and followed her path through the door, with Luke close behind, wondering, as the door closed behind them, just where Kairi had gone off to. It had only just hit him now that he'd never asked what she'd meant by her words back on the islands.

...:...

From her location to the left of the stairs of First District, Kairi watched Crowtassha practically dragged Sora with her towards the gigantic door that decorated the start of First District's expanse. She smiled a little at the scene. It was just like Crowtassha to act like that; showing in no way that she was twenty-seven years old. Acting so much like a little kid, while Luke just watched on finding the poor person who was unlucky enough to become one of her victim the most amusing thing in the world.

She could see where Hanabi got it.

Stepping to the side, her feet met the stairs and she gripped the hand rail, watching as the three of them disappeared as the door closed behind them. Keeping her eyes locked on the door, she felt her regret well up in her chest and thought to herself, _'Will he be able to help you?'_

She wished that was so, because if anyone could save Riku, it was Sora.

* * *

><p>Hope you liked it, and remember to review.<p>

Sayonara.


	5. Of knives and petticoats

_Hello everyone, Here's the fifth chapter for you._

_On a note completely unrelated to this story, anyone who can stand or likes foreign music should go watch 'What's happening' by b1a4, or/and 'Candy room' by Perfume, their the 'WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING!' kind of asian music videos, and I liked them._

_Also about this chapter, I wasn't being very creative when I wrote so it follows the track quite like it does in the game, alot of the lines are the same too. And so that no one has to ask, I have no idea what happened to the cheshire cat in this chapter, my mind kind of just turned it into a Nekomusame._

_Anyway, I hope you like the chapter._

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix does.**_

* * *

><p><em><strong>Of Knives and Petticoats<strong>_

Following obediently behind Crowtassha, Sora followed her to hers and Luke's ship that, according to the woman in front of him, could travel to different worlds. Coming to stop in front of the sizable ship, Sora looked over its odd exterior. It looked like it had been made of some type of crystal; it was all silvery and misshapen, at least when compared to a normal ship. Out of curiosity, he decided to ask Crowtassha as she ducked under the ship's hull and came up on its other side.

"So, what's this made of exactly?"

"Mythacite. It's a crystal like material, it holds power that lets people to traverse through the worlds, but it's extremely rare, so it's not like I really expected for you to have ever heard of it, least of all seen it."

Watching Crowtassha climb up the side of the ship to come to stand on the top of it, Sora looked on as she stepped closer to both him and Luke and ushered them forward. "Welcome to Excelsior." She huffed, gesturing to the entire ship before quickly telling them, "Now come on, climb up, the cockpit's inaccessible otherwise."

Listening to her words, Sora and Luke trod closer to the side of the ship, Luke ducking under the hull like Crowtassha had and coming back out on the other side to climb up a small ladder that wasn't visible to Sora from his standpoint. Copying Luke, Sora ducked under the hull and stood back up straight to view the side of the ship.

It mimicked its other side to a point, the only difference a small silver ladder on the left side of the hull. Climbing up the ladder after Luke, Sora came to stand up on the ship's fuselage, staring over at where Crowtassha had already entered the cockpit. Casting his eyes about the ship's top side, he spied the glass windshield of the cockpit and the door that made the cockpit accessible lying flat against the ship's fuselage, just off to the left the cockpit.

Following Luke through the door, they both met Crowtassha in the cockpit where she was preparing the ship for take-off. Once the prep was done, Crowtassha flipped Luke a thumbs up and he took hold of the controls, ready for take-off.

...:...

The space between worlds, as Crowtassha was calling it, was a mesmerising place engulfed in stars, dotted occasionally with silvery pieces of crystal that Sora soon recognised as –

"Mythacite." He whispered to himself.

Watching his enthralled staring contest with the space that decorated outside of their ship with a smile, Crowtassha struck up a conversation with the boy.

"Yep," she told him, referring back to his comment about the mythacite. "This is where it comes from."

"No wonder it's so rare," Sora said in answer, still majorly distracted by what was outside the window he was pressed against.

"Yeah." Crowtassha mumbled, so low that he could barely hear it.

Standing up and walking closer to Sora, sitting against the wall of the cockpit, Crowtassha crossed her legs and placed her arms over them.

"I'll tell you something," she said randomly, her voice portraying that her mind was lost in reverie.

"What?" Sora asked.

"A long time ago, there used to be a tradition, that when a key bearer appeared, they'd be given a piece of mythacite. With which they could travel to other worlds and lend help if they were ever needed."

Taking in the information and continuing to stare out the window, Sora ventured to ask Crowtassha a question only to be stopped from doing so when the ship abruptly slowed down considerably, taking his attention away from both Crowtassha and the window.

Turning from his position in the driver's seat to face them, Luke signalled to Crowtassha in a number of signs that Sora couldn't understand. Looking to the side, Sora saw Crowtassha nod her head at Luke and switch her attention to back to him, telling him while pointing up ahead to the front of the ship. "There's a world ahead, you can take a look if you want."

Getting up off the chair he was sitting on, he approached the front of the ship, coming to stand right next to Luke who was slowly directing the ship towards what he had been informed was another world. What Sora viewed before him resembled that of a giant portal, bigger than the ship by an ample amount, coloured somewhere between grey and purple.

A perplexed expression settled itself on his face as he looked on, tilting his head backwards a little to view Crowtassha walking closer towards him, Sora asked "What is that exactly?"

"It's a portal, exactly what it looks like, go through that and you'll end up in the world it encloses."

Nodding in response, Sora kept his eyes glued to the portal as they moved ever closer until it was upon them and they were sucked into its depths.

...:...

When they reappeared again, they found themselves within a small circular room, tiled with checker patterns across the floor. Sitting up from the ground groggily, Sora was hit with the strange feeling that he had just fell a great depth, but once he looked up he found that such a thing would have been impossible as there was a solid roof above his head. Puzzled, he turned his head and let his eyes sweep about the room.

Crowtassha was slowly rising from the floor, the way she was rubbing her head gave off the impression that she had bumped it on something, the floor being the only possible thing she could have hit it on. Luke was standing by a twisting passageway, staring curiously along its length. Sora was about to question what he was staring at when he was hit with the realisation that he had no idea where the ship had gone. Confounded he turned to Crowtassha who was getting up off the ground, and slowly directing her gaze to follow Luke's. Getting up himself, Sora walked towards the women and asked her, "What exactly happened to the ship?"

Snapping her head back to stare at Sora in surprise, as if she had forgot he was there momentarily, she answered after a time, while getting out a piece of silver crystal from her pocket. "Some worlds react differently to mythacite, seeing as it's a foreign substance." Gesturing to the silvery crystal she held in her hand she went on, "Most worlds will give you this, with it you can transport yourself to wherever the world has kept the ship."

Nodding in understanding, both him and Crowtassha turned their attention back to the hallway Luke was still looking down. Choosing to question what he was doing, Sora asked "Luke what are you looking at exactly?"

There was a series of hand movements that followed which Crowtassha quickly interpreted into words.

"He said he just saw a rabbit in a waistcoat run down the hallway."

Turning his head to stare at Crowtassha in disbelief at the words, Sora waited a second to let the content of her words catch up with her mind.

"Wait what?" She soon exclaimed, mimicking Sora's utter disbelief.

Luke made a series of similar hand movements as before, which Sora guessed was him just reinstating what he'd said before.

Crowtassha's disbelieving words confirmed that for him. "I know what you said; I just can't get my mind around it! You sure that's what you saw?"

Luke nodded to her in turn, but seeing that Crowtassha was still sceptical of his words he pointed down the hallway and signed to Crowtassha again.

"Ok, ok we'll check it out then, gotta get out of this room sometime anyway." She told him.

It didn't take a genius to realise that she still wasn't going to believe him, not until she saw that rabbit with her own eyes. Pulling Sora along with her down the hallway, Crowtassha took the lead with Sora at her side and Luke following closely behind. At the end of the hallway they found door after door piled up on the same doorway, each one slightly smaller than the other. Opening each one in turn, they soon had them all open and they stepped in to the next room.

It was larger than the previous room, with a white table and a chair placed in its middle and a fireplace off to the right. Another table like fixture lay against the bottom left hand corner of the wall, as well as two high backed chairs next to it. At the top left corner was a lime green bed. Lastly, directly across from them, far across the room, was a small door with a golden knob and who would have guessed, but a miniature white rabbit in a waistcoat bargaining to be let through. Staring completely dumbfounded at the small thing as it won its argument with the door and walked through the little doorway, Crowtassha fumbled around for Luke's shoulder and patted it while still staring out the now closed doorway. "Guess I owe you an apology there, you were right."

Shrugging off her hand and walking past both her and the equally shocked Sora, Luke signed back to Crowtassha in what she registered to mean 'Am I ever wrong?' and headed towards the small door that lay on the other side of the room. Following behind him, Sora and Crowtassha walked up to the small door and leaned over to peer at its diminutive frame.

It was a small wooden thing, aged and slightly splintery. Its little doorknob was faded gold and held a small keyhole. But most importantly, as they found out with a twist of the knob. It was locked.

"Dammit it's locked." Crowtassha grumbled.

Luke quickly signed to her in more sign language that was indistinguishable to Sora, but which Crowtassha quickly replied to. "I can see that, you don't have to point out the obvious."

Kneeling down, Sora glanced down at the door and spied the little keyhole and said to Crowtassha, "There must be a key somewhere, we should try and find it."

Crouching down so that she was closer to Sora height, Crowtassha grumbled, "That's exactly what Luke said, not that I can see one around here." Twisting her head around she saw that Luke had already drifted away from them trying to find exactly that, but appeared to have struck a dead end in his search.

Sighing, Crowtassha rose to her full height, and ran a hand through her hair, "Where oh, where oh are you key."

A silence elapsed between them as Luke gave up on his search and Sora stood up from the door. His mouth opened to ask Crowtassha something when a voice interrupted him.

"To the riddle of the key, the room, your exit, there are but three answers. One flew away with the rabbit as in his hand in haste the key remained key. The second comes to you as the colour of the sky small as an apple and liquid clear as water. The third you'll find in what is there but should not. By these answers your escape of this chamber is assured."

Looking to the left to seek out the speaker, the three of them found a strange- looking girl with cat ears and tail, dressed in a curious garment of purple and pink, sitting on the bed that was seemingly misplaced within the room.

"What?" Sora questioned as he continued to stare at the strange girl.

"What I said is what I said, a riddle set for thee to help you find what you hunt."

And with that she disappeared into thin air, like she had never been there in the first place.

All was silent for a moment, before Sora was the first to ask "What was that?"

"Good question." Crowtassha concurred as she recovered from her shock "because I haven't the slightest idea."

A chinking sound from behind them drew them away from their own personal thoughts and both turned backwards to see Luke picking up a previously unnoticed bottle from the white table in the middle of the room. Giving them a sidewards glance he threw the bottle at Crowtassha who just managed to catch it. Her lips had just formed the movements to question him when he signed to her.

_'The colour of the sky small as an apple and liquid clear as water. A bottle a small of clear liquid that's about as big as an apple with a blue label, could you think of anything else that cat-girl was referring to? Cause I can't.'_

"Hmmm." Crowtassha hummed as she inspected the bottle, while translating Luke words for Sora "He says he think this is what the girl was referring to."

"Oh" Sora said as he looked at the bottle, "Seems very possible, but what do you think it does?"

Purging her lips in thought she posed the question to Luke, who responded with a series of signs that made the most weirded out look pass over Crowtassha's face.

"Ok I get how you could think that but seriously, do you know what your implying there." She said astounded. Not knowing what in the world Luke had said made Sora fall into a pit of confusion at these words.

Turning to him with the same astounded attitude Crowtassha said in disbelief "He's says he thinks it shrinks you, looking at how small the rabbit was when it went through the door."

Sora looked at Luke for a second questioning the thought of it, when the strange logic of it hit him, and he answered Crowtassha "Crow so far we've seen a talking white rabbit in a waistcoat and a girl who appeared out of nowhere with cat ears and a tail who gave us a riddle before disappearing into nothing."

Pulling a face at being on the disagreeing side alone, Crowtassha held the bottle out for Sora "Why don't you test it out for us then?"

Sora didn't know whether or not to be scared at the mischievous tone in her voice, but scared or not he took the bottle off of her, peeled off the lid off and cautiously took a sip. In a way, he wished he hadn't, because only seconds after the bottle had left his lips he shrank considerably, until he was only a small fraction of Luke and Crowtassha's size. And that was something Crowtassha found uproariously funny.

Forgetting her previous thoughts of disagreement completely she knelt down so that she at least approached his height, and poked him with a finger, something that at his size was enough knock him over.

"Oh, my god! You're so adorable." She said before twisting her head so that she could spy Luke who was picking up the bottle from where Sora had dropped it on the ground.

"Isn't Sora just so cute like this Luke?"

Not responding Luke continued to stare down the bottle's length, a string of thoughts circling around in his head.

Shrugging off his non-existent answer, Crowtassha turned back to face Sora, still trying to hold in her laughs at the hilarious sight of him.

It was then she was struck with the realisation, "Oh crap, I still have to drink that stuff don't I?"

If he was someone who made sounds, Luke would have laughed at that sentence. Walking up behind Crowtassha as she started getting up from her kneeling position, he held out the bottle for her when she turned around to face him, the hint of a smile on his lips. Glaring at him, she prepared for an argument she knew she would lose.

"If you drink it first, I promise I won't make fun of you when you go all small."

Luke shook his head, and setting the bottle back down on the table he signed to her, _'No way in hell am I drinking that before you. It doesn't matter what you say, you'll use any chance you get to make fun of me.'_

"Oh don't be like that, I really mean it this time! I won't say anything about you being a little miniature thing." She tried bargaining again.

To this Luke shook his head again and signed before picking the bottle back up and holding it in front of Crowtassha, _'I'll screw a guy before I drink that before you! Now just drink, why don't you? It's not like I can insult you verbally.'_

Crossing her arms and pouting at him in defeat, knowing she had lost the fight, Crowtassha took the bottle from his hands and drank a minute amount before placing it back on the table.

Seconds later she felt herself getting smaller and smaller until she came to be just a little over Sora's height. Looking up to see Luke still with the hints of a smile on his face, she pouted at him as he signed to her as what she could still make out from her position as, _'Oh, I'm never going to let you live this one down.'_

Her pout only intensified as she watched Luke pick the bottle up and drink from its contents. Looking on as he slowing shrank down to their size, Sora said to the irate Crowtassha beside him, "I didn't get any of that, what in the world was he saying?"

Coming out of her hateful trance, she jumped in surprise a little at Sora's question. With all her glaring at Luke she'd almost forgotten he was there.

Next to ignoring his question she told him, "We so need to teach you sign language, don't we?"

Finding that his question was not going to be answered Sora settled with agreeing with her. "Yeah, that'd be smart."

Staring around at their surroundings as Luke walked closer to them, Sora found out just the humongous degree on which they'd shrunken. The small table was a monster in size when compared to them, and they used to be twice its height.

Tapping Crowtassha on the shoulder as she stuck her tongue out at Luke, he told her while the room still held his gaze, "We really got small didn't we?"

Laughing slightly at what he said, Crowtassha said, "And you didn't notice that when we were standing over you?" Looking around the room she mused "So what other thing do you think that girl was referring to?"

The three turned their gazes to the room around them, seeking out the third answer of the girl's riddle. Gnawing on her lip, Crowtassha remarked "Well she said that we had to find what was there but should not, and if you ask me, that bed is really out of place."

Walking up to the bed she pushed it weakly with two hands, and when that did nothing twisted on her heel she leaned back onto the bed's railings. And in doing so the question was answered for her. As her weight was pressed against it, the bed fell into the wall it sat against, turning into nothing but an image upon the wall.

Losing her balance and falling over in the process, Crowtassha shot a look back at the wall. Failing to hide her embarrassment at her trip up, she spluttered out when she looked back to Luke and Sora, "Well looks like that was answered for us, heh heh."

Swiftly returning to her position of standing upright, Crowtassha pointed towards the exit that the disappearance of the bed had now made visible "I'm just gonna head out here, kay?" She said, her embarrassment still extremely noticeable. That said, she darted off through the hole to avoid anything Luke could have signed to her of his amusement at her fall. Watching her go, Sora turned and said knowingly "This is another thing you're not going to let her forget, I'm guessing."

The moment the words had left his mouth, a small smirk set itself on Luke face and he nodded vigorously as they traced Crowtassha's path and followed her outside.

...:...

Outside they found themselves in a garden of sorts, filled with red roses and hedges cut into different shapes. They were partially cut off from a courtyard beyond by the way the hedges curved around them where they had exited the room behind them. Approaching Crowtassha from behind, Sora tapped on her shoulder, and asked her curiously, as he'd noted the odd way she was staring intently at the courtyard filled with people in front of them, "What are you staring at?"

"Listening more like, I can't really see anything with all those cards blocking my line of sight," she answered him.

"Cards," Sora said incredulously. Something about that sounded a mite wrong with that sentence, but sure enough, when he turned to look at the courtyard properly, what was there but cards with hands and feet of course. Before he could question what was wrong with that sight, or all they'd seen of this world so far, Crowtassha spoke first. "Can you see that blonde girl up there, the one in the black dress?"

Staring forward once more to hunt out the person she was talking about, Sora's eyes soon found the girl in question, a teenager wearing an intricate black dress that ballooned out where the dress turned into a skirt. "Yes," he answered Crowtassha.

"The ugly hag up front has her on trial. Won't listen to her arguments or anything, just keeps on yelling this and that and accusing her of things that are not even possible for her to have done."

Listening on in the trial himself, Sora found just how true Crowtassha's statement had been. Of course if he'd heard this from the beginning, he may have had a few more things to prove that, but even the ending was enough.

"You stand accused of trying to steal the Queen's heart, how do you plead?" he heard a voice call out across the courtyard, one that belonged to the white rabbit from before.

"Not guilty!" The girl's strong voice rang out even louder. "Come on I didn't do it, and you have no evidence to prove I did."

"Yes you did you lying girl, now tell the truth!" Yelled a woman Sora saw to be sitting up on a high podium in front of everyone.

Looking closely at the woman Sora just about gawked. "Please don't tell me that's the Queen," he whispered to Crowtassha.

"Oh that's her alright, every gram of fat of her." She told him nodding. Gazing up to the Queen, Sora took in her ugly form: she had double chins, fat arms and an excessively round belly, all of which was wrapped up in a garishly red dress.

"But that is the truth!" The blonde girl yelled again, getting desperate.

"No it isn't!" The queen yelled again. Glancing to the guards either side of her she ordered them, "She's lying and is as guilty as I say she is, now seize her!"

"No! I didn't do anything you hag! This is unfair!" The girl screamed as the card shaped guards took a step towards her. Watching the scene unfold in front of him, Sora quickly turned to Crowtassha. "Crow," he said, "we need to help her."

His statement was made even more evident when the ugly Queen yelled out to everyone present, "Off with her head!"

Grabbing the hem of her shirt, Sora begged, "Crow!"

"I know, I know!" she said, switching her attention from the courtyard to Sora, "But we're not supposed to mess with the goings-on of the other worlds; that's the rules."

"But she needs our help," he said as he watched the girl pull something out of her layer of skirts and petticoat.

A shining silver knife.

That was it. Glancing over at Crowtassha for a moment he told her strongly, "I don't care what the rules are; I'm going to help her." With that he rushed off into the courtyard to interrupt what was happening within. He was absently aware of Crowtassha running after him as he ran into the middle and yelled loud enough so that everyone could hear, "Stop, this girl's innocent!"

Stopping in their tracks, the card soldiers let go of the girl and turned to look at Sora in curiosity.

Banging her fist angrily on whatever her hand found, the Queen stood up to her rather pitiful full height, and yelled back at Sora furiously, "What is the meaning of this insolence, if it wasn't the girl then who was it!?"

Having heard enough of the trial, as little as that had been, to give a good estimate and possessing all the information needed to make a more informed guess, Sora answered her, "It was the heartless!"

Sora sensed Crowtassha pull up beside him as the ugly Queen's face turned as red as her dress and she screeched, "And what proof do you have!?"

Hesitating as he stared up at the Queen, Sora was hit with the realisation that, apart from his own knowledge, he held no direct evidence of the heartless being the ones who attempted to steal the Queen's heart. Slamming her hands down one final time the Queen said, "Humph, could have guessed as much."

Straightening up she gestured to her card soldiers, "Lock the girl up!"

"What?" Sora yelled back, Crowtassha placing a hand on his shoulder to stay him.

Glaring at Sora with obvious contempt, the Queen ended by saying, "She will stay locked up as long as it takes to give me proof that it wasn't her at fault here, collect as much or as little as you choose. If you fail, then it will be off with your heads!"

Without being giving any time to form a response, the card soldier shoved Sora and the other two roughly in the direction of an opening in the hedge. Looking back at the Queen one last time before they were all thrust through the gap Sora thought to himself, _'This could turn out bad.'_

...:...

Stumbling to a stop at the start of a bizarre looking forest, the three of them sought to regain their balance after being ousted from the court. Straightening up and taking in his surroundings, Sora looked around the forest in bewilderment. It was misshapen and distorted; nothing like any forest he'd ever laid eyes on before, as limited as the numbers of those were. Similar to Sora, Crowtassha stared around the peculiar forest, bemused by its shape and form.

"Haven't seen any forest like this one before, what about you?" Crowtassha asked.

"Never in my life," Sora answered her.

Taking a few steps forward to survey the area better, Crowtassha twisted on her heel to face Sora. "You wouldn't happen to have any idea what to do about that little task the hag Queen set for us, would you?" She queried, having no answers herself.

Sora shook his head. "No more than you do, I don't really see how you can get evidence on something like that." He answered truthfully.

Letting the reply hang in the air, Crowtassha went about scratching her chin in thought as a familiar voice rang out through the forest.

"Poor Alice," the high pitched voice said, "soon to lose her head; and you after her if you're not careful. And she is not even guilty."

Turning to face the odd cat girl from before that was garbed in her peculiar pink and purple dress and stockings, Sora ran though her words in his head.

"Wait," he said, "if you know that then do you know who the culprit is?"

"The Cheshire cat knows all the answers- but doesn't always tell. The answer, the culprit, the cat all lay in darkness." She told him before disappearing into nothingness just like she had before.

As her presence left the forest words sprang to Sora's lips of begging her back, but they were cut off before he had the chance to voice them by her voice coming out of nowhere and saying, "They've already left the forest. I won't tell which exit. There are four pieces of evidence in all; three are a cinch to find. The fourth is tricky. Big reward if you find them all."

And then the voice disappeared, its source still nowhere to be seen. Staring blankly at the log where the cat girl had been sitting, Crowtassha said, "Yeeeeah, just a question, but should we keep trusting that thing?"

"To trust, or not to trust? I trust you'll decide." The cat girl said, reappearing one last time before disappearing again. Keeping his eyes zoned in on the log for a moment longer, to see if she would say anything more or even reappear again, Sora glanced over at Crowtassha and Luke.

"We should trust what she said, it's all we have to go on really." he told them.

Pursing her lips in thought Crowtassha soon responded with a nod. "Guess you're right, it's better than nothing."

Looking over at Luke, Crowtassha asked him, "What about you?"

He shrugged his shoulders at them as his reply, clearly not caring either way.

"Decided then," Crowtassha said while turning back to Sora. "We'll see if we can find this evidence the cat girl was talking about."

Ending the conversation, the three of them set out among the forest to find what would be, if they were lucky, the sure thing to save them from the Queen's wrath.

By the end of it, the evidence wasn't all that hard to find. The heartless that constantly hampered them throughout the entire search only succeeded in making it more annoying.

Two of the pieces of evidence had been found within the forest that they now inhabited. The first was hidden within the bushes and the second high in the treetops. The others were a little harder to find. The search for them made them climb through the tree tops, to find doorways within the foliage which led them back to the bizarre room that they had passed through when they first came to this world. There were two separate doorways that led them to two different areas of the bizarre room. One took then to the top of the fireplace that Sora had spied when he'd first entered the room and the other one took then to a plank of wood that stuck out of the wall high above the fireplace.

It was a daunting sight when Sora had looked down, he'd almost fallen off the wood straight off without even getting his hands on the evidence first, only to be caught by Crowtassha. Carefully they lowered themselves off the plank of wood and onto the fireplace below, the three of them jumped off it and onto the solid ground below. As they all headed to the doorway that would lead them back outside they heard a voice call out from its creator's position on the white table.

"I see you found what you were looking for." The feminine voice said with a hint of humour evident. Looking up to see what sat on the white table top, Sora found the cat girl sitting with her legs crossed, leaning over the table's edge with a playful smile hovering over her lips.

"Can we save Alice from the Queen with this?" He asked her.

With a slight giggle, the cat girl intoned, "She may be innocent, but what about you?"

"Huh, what does that mean?" Sora questioned again, confused by her words.

"I won't tell," she said with a playful shake of her head. "But I will give you something."

And with that she threw something to him and disappeared once more.

Catching the small shining stone, Sora clasped it in his hands before bringing it up to his face to view what it was. It looked suspiciously like mythacite. Looking at it, perplexed, he heard Crowtassha step closer to him before she lifted it from his hands and examined it herself.

"This is a mythacite shard." She said, impressed that the girl had gotten her hands on it, yet still confused as to how.

"If its mythacite, how'd she get it then?" Sora questioned her.

Still scrutinizing the shard in her hand Crowtassha enlightened him, "Well the only possible way was that the portal of this world sucked it out from the space between worlds, much like it did our ship. It's the most common way people get their hands on mythacite, it's very rare that someone would actually go out to the space between worlds to get it."

Looking at the crystal shard, much like Crowtassha now was, Sora asked her, "Any idea why she gave it to me then?"

"Well," Crowtassha said holding out the sapphire blue crystal for Sora to see, "see the colour, this shard holds the power of elemental magic, unlike the silver shards that just help with traversing the worlds. It's blizzard I think, or maybe water."

Inspecting it again, trying to decide which one it was she gave up and held it out to Luke. "Luke you're the magic wiz here, what is this?" She asked him.

After Luke shot quick glance at the shard and a series of hand signs later, Crowtassha turned back to Sora and said, "He says I was right the first time."

Handing the shard back to Sora, he took it in his hand before pocketing it. Gesturing that they should get going, Crowtassha pointed to the doorway and said, "We should really get going, I have feeling that the hag Queen isn't going to wait forever."

Sora nodded to her in agreement, took her lead and began to walk to the door, saying as they were halfway there to Crowtassha, "You know, but isn't that crystal kind of wasted on me? I don't even know how to use magic."

She shrugged his words off and told him, "Oh it's easy enough to use, most people meld it to their weapon, as it's near impossible to summon it right from the crystal, I've only seen a handful of people in my entire life do it, and they were damn talented. In fact-"

Turning on her heel to face Luke she asked, "You have a spare fire shard don't you?"

Nodding Luke reached a hand into his pocket and brought out a blood red crystal that sparkled in the light.

"Give it to me," Crowtassha told him, prompting him to throw it to her and her to give it to Sora.

"I know it's a bit off topic from what I was saying, but here, now you have both fire and ice, would've sounded funnier if it was water instead of ice, but it's good enough."

While pocketing the fire shard, Sora sent a look Luke's way that just said, 'Did she seriously give me a fire shard just because the fire and ice thing sounded cool?' Taking no notice of the look or Luke's nod to Sora from behind her, Crowtassha continued on her way to the doorway, turning back only when Sora and Luke didn't move, to say "Hey you two coming or what?"

Snapping his head to look over at her, Sora nodded and traced her steps towards the doorway and back to the court of the Queen.

...:...

Once outside, the three of them stopped just to the side of the courtyard and readied themselves for a fight if it was to come, seeing as the Queen had already made herself out for one that didn't liked to be proven wrong. And with the evidence they held in their possession, that was all too sure to happen. Treading forward until they came to stand where Alice had stood previously before the Queen had her locked up in a cage that was next to her own podium, they stood before the Queen. Looking up at them, one of the Queen's card soldiers questioned them, "Are you ready to present your evidence?

Answering him with a yes, the card soldier called out to the Queen and gestured to the three before her to get her attention from where she was scolding the small white rabbit who sat near her. She glanced down to find Sora, Crowtassha and Luke standing on a smaller podium below her.

"So," she said "what have you found to prove to me that that wretched girl is innocent?"

After she finished her sentence, Sora brought forth the pieces of evidence they had scoured for and found to prove Alice's innocence and showed them to her.

Once he was done the Queen stuck her nose up at him, saying, "You certainly have a lot of evidence there boy, but that doesn't mean I'm impressed." Looking from side to side at her soldiers she yelled out, "Cards! Bring forth my evidence!"

Dropping her piece of evidence beside the other three, she looked over them and said lazily, "Hmm, looking through all of these would be nothing more than a waste of my time." Gazing back over at Sora she told him, "Choose the one you wish present, and we'll have a look at that. I'll decide who's guilty based on that."

Taken aback by the sheer laziness of what she had declared Sora said, "What! You'd do that after all the trouble we went through collecting it?"

"You dare object? Then it will be off with your head! Now choose a box or it will be death for you!" The Queen yelled. Without even having to take in the content of the Queen's last sentence, Sora sensed that any more arguing would only have a bad result. Glancing back at Crowtassha and Luke, Crowtassha gave him a slight nod and told him in a whisper, "Just pick and box and pray this turns out alright."

Turning back to face the Queen knowing that Luke couldn't give him anything he'd understand at the moment, Sora jumped over the small podium and landed near where the evidence was situated. Looking over to Alice where she was locked up in the cage, he bit his lip and walked up to a random box, being careful to avoid the Queen's box and went to open it.

He heard a voice call out to him, "Are you sure of your choice?"

Nodding Sora told the Queen strongly, "let me show the real culprit."

Opening the box he jumped back as a heartless appeared from within it only for it to disappear seconds afterwards. Before he could question the oddness of the occurrence the Queen yelled, "What in the world was that?"

"Your real culprit. Alice is innocent," Sora told her.

Clearly angered at being wrong, the Queen growled "Rrrrrrrgh! Silence, I am the law here. Article 29: anyone who defies the Queen is guilty!" She screamed.

"That's crazy!" Sora heard Crowtassha scream back from behind him.

"Guards! Seize them all" The Queen yelled.

And just like that the guards were upon them, trying to take them down.

Dodging out of the way of a group of cards that were trying to catch them, Crowtassha yelled over to Sora from her position a number of metres behind him. "Sora we need to save Alice and get the hell out of here!"

Stepping to the side as another group of cards veered towards them, Sora and Crowtassha ended up back to back fighting off the soldiers, Sora with his keyblade and Crowtassha with her shield and dagger.

"But they raised Alice's cage when they started attacking us!" Sora informed her.

Glancing over to the cage in question as the card soldier's lightened up their attack for a second, Crowtassha swore and blocked an attack from an incoming card soldier. Scanning her eyes over the court, looking desperately for something to lower Alice's cage, Crowtassha's gaze soon stopped on a small tower-like structure with three wooden wheels sticking out of its sides.

"Sora you see that tower thing over there, by the hedge?" she asked him.

Following her gaze Sora found the tower she was talking about and nodded.

"Kay," Crowtassha said, stabbing at one of the cards, "trash that thing, it looks like it controls that cage, does it not?"

"Alright," Sora said jumping out of the way as a card soldier swung its spear at him, and heading through the chaos and to the tower.

Back in the thick of the battle Crowtassha gestured to Luke to come closer to her and heard the Queen scream at the top of her lungs, "You fools they're trying to free the girl, they're trying to break the tower!"

Turning around to see Sora smashing the tower with his keyblade, the guards stopped in their attempts to take down Crowtassha and Luke and ran towards Sora. Watching them, Crowtassha turned to Luke and told him, "We need to cover Sora, come on!"

Following the guards both of them struck at them with weapon and magic in attempt to relieve Sora of their attacks and direct them to themselves. Some of the cards started to ignore Sora and chose instead to attack Crowtassha and Luke, but not all of them, so Sora was left with the task of deviating between attacking the tower and attacking the cards. This went on for a time before the tower was left in such a bad condition that the cage Alice was held in fell back to the ground. Running up to it as a curtain that covered its surface during the fight fell from around its circular form only to reveal-

That it was empty.

Everyone in the court fell silent as they stared at the desolate cage that no longer held the girl who'd been in it only moments before. Dumbfounded at the sight of the empty cage, Crowtassha spoke into the silent air, "What happened, did she disappear while we were fighting?"

"You fools!" They all heard the Queen yell, but quickly found that it wasn't directed at them, "Find the one who's responsible, I don't care how!"

The order had been directed at her card soldiers and as soon as it had left her lips, they scattered in all directions to follow the order out. With the card soldier out of sight and the Queens attention away from them, Crowtassha blew out a sigh of relief.

For the time being, they were safe.

Walking away from the cage, Luke began in the direction of the bizarre room, clearly not wanting to be near the Queen and all her idiocy any longer. Treading after him Crowtassha came to stand at his side and asked "Where are you going?" As Sora approached them both.

He signed to her in answer, _'Away from here to that weird room, I have a feeling about it.'_

Translating what he was signing she asked him, "What kind of feeling?"

Luke shrugged his shoulder, gesturing, _'Hard to say, guess we'll find out.'_

Going silent Crowtassha slowed her pace so that she came up next to Sora, translating what Luke signed to her. "He says he has a feeling about that bizarre room, so we're heading there."

Nodding to her, Sora and Crowtassha followed Luke into the bizarre room leaving the court for what would hopefully be the last time.

...:...

Walking through the room and coming to stop just in front of the white table, Sora glanced around, trying to seek out anything out of the ordinary. There was nothing notable that met his eyes until he heard that familiar voice call out once more.

"The shadows will be here soon, are you prepared for the worst?" The cat girl said pointing up to the roof, from which a giant heartless that towered over them at their diminutive height dropped down and landed on the floor, before it flipped over the table to land on the other side of them.

Its head resembled a tower with many layers, each one changing from red to black as it got higher and lined with yellow. Its body was of a similar colouring, except that it possessed only a torso before turning into red and black misshapen legs. Its shoulders were adorned with bulky pauldrons and its arms were long things, reminiscent of strings that ended in purple hands that looked like bats. It wobbled from side to side for only a moment before it began its attack.

It struck out with its bat-like hands, trying hard to hit them. Dodging that attack, Sora jumped to the side and landed right near where Crowtassha's own jump had taken her.

"Attack its legs," she told him, "They're the only thing we could hope to hit at this height."

Taking her tip, Sora half ran half dodged, until he was at the heartless's long legs, where he proceeded to attack it with his keyblade. Luke and Crowtassha soon joined him in his assault, tripling the force of the attack. It soon occurred to them that the attack on the heartless's legs wasn't doing as much damage as they had hoped, but at their height there wasn't much they could do.

As they continued to pummel its legs, Luke landed a higher hit on it and the heartless abruptly fell to the ground, stunned, having taken enough hits on to it. Taking the chance given to them, they started attacking even harder than they had before, having no attacks from the heartless to hamper them. But the stunned condition of their enemy didn't last long and it soon got back up on its feet to resume its fight.

Readying his blade once more Sora started to attack again. This process was repeated for a time till the heartless became more ferocious and began to kick out with its legs, in an attempt turn the fight in its favour. But even with its fierce moves, it failed at taking its attackers down When it could take no more it fell to its knee and went limp, staying there a second before falling onto its back and disappeared much like its brethren had, a heart floated into the air above its disappearing form. Keeping his eyes on the spot where it had fallen, Sora hold a peculiar noise from behind him.

Turing his head his eyes landed on the small splintery door. Scrutinizing it he saw that a shining light was coming from the keyhole, illuminating it. As he stared at it, his still summoned keyblade brought itself up to face the keyhole against his will, and a light shot from its tip directly into it.

"What was that?" Crowtassha exclaimed in surprise.

"I don't know," Sora told her, "But did you hear that sound? It sounded like something closed, like the locking of a door."

As he finished his sentence a piece of crystal materialised in the fading light and fell onto the floor. Looking at it in surprise, Crowtassha walked up to and picked it up off the floor, turning it around in her hands.

"It's mythacite," she said. "But I haven't seen a shard like this before, guess I might as well hold on to it at least." Switching her gaze to the door as she pocketed the shard in her denim shorts, she mumbled "I wonder how it got here." And as she said it a girlish giggle sounded off behind them.

"Heh, heh you're quite the hero," the cat-girl said, "but if you're looking for Alice, she's not here. She's gone off with the shadows, into the darkness."

And then once more and for the final time she was gone, leaving Sora to mumble a defeated, "No."

Letting the knowledge that Alice was long gone sink in, Crowtassha approached Sora from behind and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Come on Sora, there's nothing more we can do here and I certainly am not going near that hag Queen again. Let's just go back to the ship, we might find Alice in another world."

Turning back to face her Sora nodding, saying "I guess you're right."

Pulling the silver crystal that would take them back to the ship from her pocket, Crowtassha asked Sora as she started using it, "So Sora how was your first trip to another world?"

Laughing a little Sora told her, "In all seriousness Crow, it was really weird."

Laughing to herself as well, Crowtassha said, "Well at least I'm not the only one who thought that."

A flash of light enveloped them and they were taken away from the room and to where the ship was stationed, ready to traverse another world.

* * *

><p>Hoped you liked it, and please leave a review for me if you can.<p>

Sayonara.


	6. The jungle

_Hello everyone and welcome to the chapter that was meant to be up a year ago. Just saying to the one person other than my friend and my sister who was reading this, it has been partially rewritten so you should go take a look at the first four chapters, but maybe in a couple of days because there's one last thing I want to go back and edit. Yeah I was kind of playing through 3D and there was a line that made me think that there was this one thing in this story that I should fix up. So anyone reaading this should also go have a look at the edit. It will effect the second and forth chapter._

_Just saying but this level is mostly based around things in the book with the KH story line, but softened a littlle I guess, becuase the actually themes of the book are a little too, I don't know, dark I guess for what is needed in this chapter. Mostly it's just location though and some things with character design._

_Oh and if anyone was wondering because I'm in dire need of a rant, here's what happened to me the weekend I finished 3D._

_Got to the last level, got mind shrewed. WTF is the shit._

_Went into my sister's room a little later saying "Well played Normura-san, well played". Came back a little while after that yelling"Why Nomura-san why?!"_

_The night I completed it I walked into the lounge room fell to the ground and them proceeded to scream insanely at my sister, pulling my hair out._

_And I am now in a state of temperary insanity._

_If any of that sounded insane it's because I am. Have to say, but Kingdom Hearts really isn't a smart game to get obsessed with._

**_Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix does._**

* * *

><p><em><strong>The <strong>__**jungle**_

Luke stared ahead of him at the great expanse that was the space between words through the cockpit window. Behind him he heard Crowtassha talking to Sora. She was teaching him what the different gestures in sign language meant. He knew that they had practically only met him but she should have attended to that right from the start, seeing as if Sora would be staying around for a while, understanding him was a very important thing.

They flew on for a while more before in the distance Luke spotted the great looming shape of a world ahead. He waited until it grew a little larger in his vision before he signalled to Crowtassha that it was there. Getting up from her seat beside Sora, Crowtassha walked up to the front of the cockpit and leaned on Luke's chair.

Humming to herself she asked, "Think it's worth to go check it out?"

He raised his hands to answer, but before he managed to form the gestures a big jolt shook the ship and he fell forward and slammed into the wheel. It made the ship turn askew some but other than that it did no more than hurt his hands which had gone out in front of him to take the brunt of the fall. The unprepared Sora had fallen out of his chair and poor Crowtassha, unfortunate as she was, had flew smack bam into the windscreen.

If he could, the sight would have made him laugh.

Detaching herself from the wind screen Crowtassha pressed a hand to her aching head and only succeeded in asking "What was that?" before the ship lurched forward again and she slammed right back into the glass. This time whatever was messing with the ship didn't stop there; it started to pull the ship along as if it was in a current. And it pulled it along until without even having to direct it there it was sucked up by the portal and into the world.

**…:…**

Getting up from a rough landing, Sora lifted himself into a sitting position. Rubbing his head where he felt an aching pain, he looked at his surroundings. His eyes widened when he found that he was alone. Standing up now he tried to see if he could see his two companions anywhere but they were nowhere to be seen. He was all alone on a well beaten path that seemed to go on endlessly. To either side of him were trees and long grass that engulfed everything around him.

Moving on he decided to see what he could find, most importantly of all the missing Crowtassha and Luke because he was stuck here without them. But he hadn't taken more than a couple steps when there was a sound of a stick breaking behind him and he turned just in time to summon his keyblade and block a pouncing Lioness from clawing his eyes out.

Jumping back Sora raised the keyblade up to defend himself. The animal reared and came running back at him once more. He slammed it with the keyblade and sent it flying in the other direction, but the stubborn thing it was just came running right back. So a dangerous dance begun of batting the animal back and blocking its fierce attacks from reaching him, that was until a stone beneath his foot tripped him up and he fell backwards. It was too late now to block the oncoming creature's attack, and try as he did to raise the keyblade to do so he knew he couldn't make it in time. Flinching Sora prepared for the pain to come.

Only it didn't come, and when he opened his eyes he saw the Lioness hanging from a tree with a grass noose circling its neck, struggling to break free. Confused Sora stood back up and searched for whoever had saved him from the attacking animal. As he did the Lioness's claws finally broke through the grass around its neck and it scurried off like a frightened house cat. And from the tree above him dropped a man.

His body was tanned from long exposure to the sun and his long untamed hair was black and fell well past his shoulders in long matted strands. His eyes were grey and he was scarcely dressed, wearing nothing more than a loin cloth and a few tribal bracelets. Peculiarly, around his neck was a beautiful silver locket.

Staring at the man curiously, Sora tried to ask him a question not knowing what sort of answer he would get from a man like the one in front of him.

"Um, hello," he said. "I'm Sora. I'm looking for my friends, have you seen them?"

At first he got no reply, so he tried something else, this time more slowly, "One's a girl with shortish black hair; she should have a brown haired boy with her."

There was a moments silence before the man started to make some weird 'Hu' sounds and said haltingly, "Friends, here."

"You've seen them?" Sora asked surprised.

The man did a little bob, then made more of those 'Hu' sounds, then said while lifting his hands to his chest, "Friends here."

"Can you take me to them then? Sora asked.

The man bobbed again then hobbled off in the other directions before stopping, obviously wanting Sora to follow him and said, "Tarzan go." Then he hopped into the tangled mess of trees and grass. Watching him go, Sora soon began to walk after him. Stepping into the line of trees he saw that the man was waiting just a little while in for him to catch up. Walking after him through the twisted net of thickly spread plant life Sora followed him through the jungle, wondering as he did if the man had meant by the last thing he said that his name was Tarzan.

**…:…**

Sitting up from where she had fallen, Crowtassha looked around, and was shocked to see that Sora was nowhere to be seen. Getting up she quickly spied Luke laying on the ground a couple of metres away, undoubtedly sulking. He had a thing with hating losing control of the ship even if what had grasped control off him had been completely an outside force that he had no control over. It made her fear how he would react if Sora made the mistake of asking him what was wrong. Which unfortunately, he probably would. That was if they could find him.

Looking in every possible direction Crowtassha began to grow worried. He definitely wasn't anywhere around here. They were in a small clearing and the trees in the immediate area were loosely spaced, so it would be easy to spot anyone. Purging her lips, a sound above her made Crowtassha look up. In the branches of the trees surrounding the clearing she could make out some animals. She couldn't make out what they were from the height they were at, but she definitely saw one of them drop something small and shiny onto the ground.

Curious, she walked over to it and lo and behold, it was Mythacite.

Picking it up, Crowtassha looked at it more than a little weirded out. Of course one of those black furred buggers just happened to be carrying around some Mythacite; that made perfect sense now didn't it? Not.

"What the hell?" She mumbled as the sound of footsteps coming from behind her attracted her attention and she turned around to see Luke getting up from the ground-still visibly grumpy- and a man she didn't know holding a gun to his chest.

**…:…**

Breaking through the endless curtain of jungle Sora found himself in a cove. There were some trees littered lightly about and a body of water, most likely an ocean on the side furthest from him. But most notable of all was the tree house built between a group of trees and in middle of the expanse.

It was to this tree house that Tarzan walked. Sora followed along behind him and waited as he leaped up elegantly to sit on the window sill and tapped on the wooden shutters to attract the attention of someone inside. After a few moments the man leaped back down and landed softly on the ground and the door to the tree house opened. From inside stepped a beautiful woman with blonde hair. Sora didn't know who she was, but was at least grateful that the man had taken him to what seemed a much safer place than he found himself in before.

The woman made a surprised gasp when she saw him and quite quickly climbed down the ladder and approached him, "My, what do we have here?" She asked.

"I'm Sora." Sora replied holding out his hands in greeting.

She shook his hand willingly and said gratefully, "It's nice to see you speak English, so that means you're definitely not a part of Tarzan's group then."

"Tarzan's group?" Sora asked curiously.

"Oh," The woman said placing a hand on her lips, "We found him among the apes when we were shipwrecked here. He's been a great help to us surviving here for this long. Gathering food and all"

"Huh." Sora said nodding his head in understanding.

Humming, the woman mused to herself, "So what are you doing here then?"

"Not anything good that's for sure. I found these two in the clearing near the apes." A third voice rang out.

Turning to see who had spoken, Sora was surprised to see a man herding Crowtassha and Luke along in front of him. Breaking free of his grasp which he loosened the closer he got to the blonde women, Crowtassha ran forward and grasped Sora's hands. "Sora I'm so glad you're safe. You had me real worried for a second there when we couldn't find you!"

Glad to see that the both of them were safe and sound, he replied. "Me too."

Looking to the side he caught sight of Luke. He didn't really look happy to see him or anything of the sort; he actually he looked gladder to be free of the man's grasp. But Sora didn't let himself be bothered by that. That was just the way Luke was as far as he knew.

"Hey Sora," Crowtassha said, gaining his attention once more as she pulled something from her pocket. "Look what I found."

"Is that-" He began to say.

"Yes" Crowtassha cut him off. "Mythacite. One of the animals here dropped it. This is hardly the type of world where this is commonly placed. Outside factors most likely have had some sort of influence in this.

"So we're staying then?" Sora asked.

"Of course," Crowtassha replied. "Stuff like this should at least be investigated. We should see what we can find here."

"And what is it that you are looking for?" Came the voice of the man that had taken Crowtassha and Luke here.

"Ah." Crow sounded a little surprised by the man's sudden intrusion, "Personal things," she said "Nothing relating to you."

The man looked a little put out but her answer, but he still told her after he'd smoothed over his expression, "Well I don't think you'll find anything here, I've searched all around this place since we got here and found nothing that I think you'd have any interest in. There's just jungle for as far as the eye can see."

Crowtassha looked discouraged at his words, and Sora wondered if she would take back saying that they'd stay here to look, that was until the man added on "Though there is one last place I've yet to look. The ape's nesting grounds, if there's anything here that's of interest to you it's there, but Tarzan refuses to show me there location."

Blinking at the unknown name, Crowtassha asked, "Who?"

The man pointed behind them to the black haired man with the long hair, "Him." He answered.

Turning around to look at the crouching man in the primitive clothing, Crowtassha's face flooded with visible surprise. Off to the left Sora saw Luke's was much the same.

"Who is that?" Crowtassha asked only a little more than deadpan.

"Tarzan." The blonde girl replied, holding out her hand for Crowtassha to take she tacked on "And mine's Jane."

Trying to hide her surprise at seeing the woman whom she had neglected to spot, Crowtassha responded with a friendly greeting to hide her tracks and shook her hand. "Crowtassha, my quiet friend here is Luke, and I'm just guessing here but I'm going to say you've already met Sora."

Jane nodded, "Yeah. Tarzan brought him here from within the jungle."

"Well good to see he's had someone to help him here; I was worried when I saw he was nowhere about. But can I ask you who that man is, I apologise if you find it a little rude but he looks kind of strange." Crowtassha said sneaking a sidelong glance at the man in question.

"Not at all, I can see how you feel," Jane replied. "We found Tarzan living amongst the apes a small time after we landed here. So he doesn't speak much English but he's been a great help to us."

"That so, well do you think he'd be any help to us?" Crowtassha wondered looking over at Tarzan again.

Jane looked unsure. "He might, but it all depends if he's willing to take you to the nesting ground." Still unsure, she turned to look at Tarzan "Tarzan?"

The black haired man remained silent for quite a time, which made Sora wonder if he'd understood the question, but eventually he bobbed his head and said, "Must ask kerchak."

"Kerchak?" Crow said.

"Head, ape." The man told her in his fractured English. Then he began to hobble off in the direction of the jungle. Behind them they heard the other man step forward. "I'll go with him, just to make sure all's safe you know." He said.

Watching the two head off, Jane walked up behind Sora and Crowtassha and whispered to them quietly, "I'd go too, Clayton's a good man but he doesn't like the apes so I'm afraid what he might do if left unchecked; watch him for me will you."

Turning to see her worried face, Sora gave her a reassuring smile and told her, "Sure we'll follow them for you. We sort of have to go anyway."

The woman nodded her thanks and stepped back. "I'll see you again then."

Nodding, Sora and Crowtassha waved her goodbye and set off into the jungle, Luke following silently behind them.

**…:…**

The three of them wandered through the mess of vines and trees after Tarzan and the man, Clayton. Worryingly, Clayton had dropped out from view early on and no amount of looking could seek him out. But Tarzan remained in clear sight for the whole time until he came out to an area that began to edge upwards into the steep hill.

The three were unfortunately forced to climb the hill along with Tarzan to the very top where they found, the land completely dropped off. In place of where they had thought would be more land was empty space filled with vines hanging from ancient trees that climbed into the sky. And in the branches of one of these trees, they spotted a large black haired ape accosted at his side by another of his kind which was considerably smaller and brown in colour. There were many others dotted around in the branches all around them but none attracted the eye quite like the black haired one they had first noticed.

Stepping forward to the edge of the cliff, Tarzan began to speak in what Sora now knew to be ape language.

He went on speaking for a minute or so, the ape he was talking to giving nary a reaction the whole time, til it got up from its seat on the branch and grabbed one of the vines closer to him and swung away.

Defeated, Tarzan slumped forward.

Watching all this take place, Sora's gaze wondered off in the direction the ape had taken. "Hey Crow." He said to get her attention. "That ape looked distracted by something, where do you think he went?"

Looking at where he was looking, Crowtassha purged her lips intrigued. "I don't know, but seeing as we don't really have anything else to do here without being able to get to the nesting grounds we may as well check it out. Who knows, maybe we'll find that Clayton guy too, I don't care what that woman says about him, I wouldn't trust him anymore then I can throw him."

"Me too." Sora agreed. He had to say but he didn't think it was just him when he thought he saw the man smiling to himself as he walked away from the tree house.

With that in mind, they set off through the jungle with Tarzan in tow to find wherever that ape had gotten itself off to.

**…:…**

Their journey took them to a small clearing close to the tree house where Jane rested. Within they found a small ape playing with some sticks on the ground and the larger black ape sitting menacingly up in the branches of the closest tree. But most importantly, Clayton, with his gun aimed squarely at the younger ape. Stopping at the start of the clearing, they were taken aback and it was only Luke's quick reaction to knock Clayton aside that made his shot go wide and miss killing the innocent animal.

The black ape looked on disapprovingly as the small ape fled, and Tarzan charged forward and began speaking in the language of the apes, but whatever he said fell on deaf ears and was ignored. Beaten, Tarzan was left to slump forward in defeat much like the last time. Turning to Clayton who now lay on the ground since Luke push had knocked him off his balance, the three of them stared on, their feelings of disapproval clear on their faces.

"What were you doing?" Sora asked him.

"Um, you misunderstand me," Clayton stumbled trying to hide his true intentions. "I was only trying to help the animal, a snake was slivering over to it you see."

Sora caught Luke's eye in his own and he saw him roll his eyes, showing how he wasn't going to believe Clayton's words for a second. They were nothing but lies obviously, so why should they?

"Yeah, yeah, say what you will, let's see what Jane thinks of your actions." Crowtassha mumbled, as the she turned her back on him and began walking off, Luke taking Clayton's arm and dragging him with them.

As they left the clearing the defeated Tarzan was soon to follow.

**…:…**

"What were you thinking?!" Jane roared, outraged by Clayton's alleged acts, and no more likely to swallow his excuses then Sora and his group were.

"But, but don't you see I wasn't trying to hurt-" Clayton stammered out only to be cut off.

"You are not allowed to go near the apes again ever! You hear me, now get out this instant." She fumed.

Sighing, knowing this was not a battle he was going to win; Clayton slumped his shoulders and slowly exited the tree house. When he was gone Jane turned to the three of them and said quietly "Please don't stay mad at Mister Clayton, he's not bad, just a little impetuous."

"Sure." Sora said. In the corner of his eyes he saw Luke roll his eyes again, so he was pretty sure he wasn't on the agreeing party. But he wasn't going to say that.

**…:…**

Walking from the tree house, Clayton holstered his rifle over his shoulder and exhaled, musing "What I'm I doing with these people?"

Walking a little further away from the wooden structure a sudden sound from within the trees drew his attention and he swerved around gun at the ready. Hearing it again he held the rifle up and aimed.

**…:…**

Outside the tree house now, Crowtassha stretched her arms, pondering to Sora, "Now I wonder where that man has gotten himself off to, nowhere good I suppose."

Humming in agreement from where he sat by the trunk of one of the trees that supported the tree house, Sora asked her, "What do you think is up with him? I mean Jane keeps defending him but he's giving us no reason to believe what she says."

Crowtassha shrugged. "Oh some people are just like that Sora, it's just the way they are."

"Hmm." He hummed back as his eyes trailed over of where he saw a grumpy looking Luke walking along the shore of the cove. He'd just realised it but Luke had seemed pretty ticked off at something the entire time they had been here, so turning back to Crowtassha he asked her, "What up with Luke?"

Strangely the question made Crowtassha crack up laughing. The sound was loud enough to attract Luke's attention, though he didn't come closer to see what the cause of it was.

"You are so lucky you didn't ask that to his face." She choked through her laughs.

"Why?" Sora questioned generally confused.

"Because he's being a sook. You see that ship is like his little baby, and this world reacted badly to it and made him lose control of it. And something about that makes him really, really angry for some weird reason I couldn't explain if I tried. Now if you'd asked that to his face he would have reacted hugely over the top and signed all the things to you that you probably wouldn't understand even if you were fluent in sign language because he did them so fast, and then fall onto the ground exasperatedly. You know something kinda theatrical like that. I'm not just saying this; I would willingly bet you a tonne of money that he would do that or something like it."

Cracking up again she fell to the ground beside Sora. Staring over in Luke's direction, Sora said, "I'm just going to take your word for that."

Still giggling, Crowtassha replied "Wise choice."

Whatever more conversation that could be had was cut shot abruptly when an unfamiliar sound drifted over to them. Hearing it, Crowtassha shot up off the ground and gazed about frantically for the source. Behind her she signalled to Luke to come back to them. Just as he reached them the creators of the sounds revealed themselves as they burst through the foliage and on the ground before them.

"Heartless!" Sora yelled in surprise, following Crow's lead he got up off the ground and summoned the keyblade to his hand. With Luke and Crowtassha readying their weapons behind him he was the first to lurch into battle.

When it was all over, he straightened up, only to notice a lone ape climbing down a tree hesitantly. Watching it curiously as it dropped to the ground, he heard Crowtassha say, "It looks scared, they must have been harassing it."

Looking to the sides to make sure the coast was clear the ape backed off slowly, still unsure if all was safe. As it left it dropped something on the ground. Seeing it Sora went to pick it up. Turning it around in his hand he saw it was a piece of Mythacite. Showing it to Crowtassha, the woman pulled a face, "Oh come on, what's this doing here, Mythacite is never attracted to rural worlds like this; I mean you saw how it reacted to our ship. So what in the world is this doing here?"

Sora shrugged, "I'm not sure."

Crowtassha pulled another face, "Yeah I Know, I'm just ranting and I don't really have anyone else to do it to."

Pocketing the shard Sora looked back in the direction of the jungle, just as a primeval sort of scream rang out through the air.

"Was that an ape?" Crowtassha asked.

"I think it was." Sora replied.

Their true answer though came in the form of Tarzan bursting through the door of the tree house, from where he'd been inside with Jane, and jumping hysterically into the jungle in a fit of panic, laced with an obvious purpose.

Rushing to the door, Jane rose her voice to tell them, "Go after him; something bad must be happening in the jungle!"

"Okay!" Sora yelled back, as him and Crowtassha ran off into the mess of tree limbs and vines without a word, and Luke following behind.

**…:…**

And so it went that they followed Tarzan through the matted lay of trees. He wasn't hard to keep sight of, but rather hard to keep pace with. The ape man swung through the branches with dizzying speed that would have had anyone less intent on keeping up with him left in the dust. But they kept up.

And it was that they landed in a tangle of trees and plants in a place littered with Heartless. The Heartless were soon killed and a harassed ape was revealed as it slid down one of the trees. Tarzan did no more than check if it was alright before speeding off again. Sora and his group were almost too slow to react to follow him once more.

This went on for four more times before exhausted and breathless Tarzan seemed to calm down. The troubles that had afflicted him obviously gone. Bent over double catching his breath, Sora spied Crow, who seemed to be not doing so much better than him, and a strangely unaffected Luke standing not so far off with his back against a tree. He eyed Luke curiously, but when he saw Crowtassha giving him a dirty looked that was laced liberally with jealously he ruled it out that he must have had inhuman stamina.

Straightening out, he wiped the sweat off his forehead. Slowly him and Crowtassha regained their wind and took note of the area they were in. It wasn't too far from the tree house where Jane was. Plus it was joyously free of any dangers like the heartless that had been hampering them constantly from the moment that they had been sent after Tarzan. Sora had thought for a short while that maybe this world was blissfully free of them, but he had been proved wrong. Perhaps they'd be anywhere the keyblade was. Not a very good thing for him unfortunately.

After that, all of them began heading back to the tree house, only not so long into the journey, something seemed to attract Tarzan's eye. Noticing this Sora walked over to the source of the man's curiosity, and found dropped thoughtlessly on the earthen ground, the pipe that Clayton had been carrying. Picking it up, he inspected it, "What's this doing here?"

Crowtassha walked up behind to stare at the out of place object, she must have opened her mouth to pose a question, but whatever she could have said was interrupted when a ferocious growl burst forth from an animal of pray as it leapt onto the scene, tackling Tarzan to the ground. Sora recognised it as the same Lioness that had lashed out at him when he came to this world.

Over and over they rolled on the ground until Tarzan threw the beast from him and it landed forcefully against a tree. Never to be discouraged through it got right back up and jumped back into the battle. Knowing that he was now to be a part of it Sora summoned the keyblade and raised it high to protect himself. To his sides, his companions did the same. Again and again the lioness attacked with its claws bared. It struck at them countless times, and was struck back against. The furious animal was adamant on taking down its prey no matter how they fought.

But the thing had miscalculated on the strength of those she was attacking and after a tiresome fight full of clawed scratches and striking blows, the lioness fell to the ground, having no longer the strength to get up again.

They were hardly given time to celebrate their victory when a feminine scream rent the air.

Twisting around to the source of the sound, the first to react was Tarzan as he burst from the ground into the trees quicker than lightning. The three of them followed not so long after. There was only one person in the jungle that could make that sound. Unfortunately, by the time they got to the scene of the crime, the tree house had it's door and window ripped open, and the inside was sans a Jane. No looking about the area could locate her, which made the only possible answer to her whereabouts being inside the deep jungle.

Luckily for them, Tarzan was quick to find tracks as they entered the jungle. He was a grand tracker it turned out, and with his help they remained strong on Jane's track the entire time, until they ended at an area full of ledges thick with long grass, and upon the highest ledge, was Jane holding to her chest a small cowering ape.

Spotting them down below her, she was quick to stand to her feet. "Tarzan!" She yelled in fear.

Her yelling soon roused the places other inhabitants, a small army of heartless, that when seeing them became enraged and starting attacking without any further warning. The battle was tough but soon over and done with. With it behind them, Sora, Crowtassha and Luke climbed to the highest Ledge where Tarzan was already waiting.

"What happened?" Crowtassha was the first to ask.

Jane shook her head in confusion, "I don't know, the last thing I remember was this little guy climbing into the tree house and then suddenly Clayton was there, then I was here."

"Clayton!" Sora said, "Where is he now?"

Jane shook head again. "I don't know."

Letting go of the small ape in her arms it hobbled over to Tarzan and mumbled a few sounds in its language. Whatever it had said had great effects on Tarzan.

"Apes, trapped." He said and jumped off the ledge and onto the waiting ground. "Come, Follow." He said as he disappeared.

Turning back to Jane one last time, she said "Go, he want's your help." Sora and Crowtassha nodded and the three of ran after the ape man.

**…:…**

Their journey led to an area close by the tree house, wherein they found many apes being hounded into a corner by heartless, and at their backs, Clayton with his rifle in his hands. As the apes struggled to flee from his aim he raised the gun level with one too slow to get away just as the great black ape, Kerchak, jumped down to guard it.

"Stop!" Sora yelled upon reaching the scene. To his sides stopped Crow and Luke, Tarzan standing by his left.

"Not Clayton." The man said, proceeded by words in the ape language which none of them could understand, and then the repeating of "Not Clayton."

Confusion welled up in Sora at the strange words but he wasn't giving the time to figure out what he meant as Clayton raised his gun to fight almost instantly after the words had left Tarzan mouth.

Sora didn't try too hard to fight him because he didn't want to do the man any true damage, but as the going of the fight went on, those thoughts were wiped from his head. As a lull in the battle went by, Clayton backed off and aimed his gun squarely at them, only for the earthen wall behind him to crack and tumble to the ground.

Unbeknownst of the danger, Tarzan charged forward only to be blown back by an invisible enemy. Landing hard on the ground not so far from him, Sora turned all his attention to Clayton. The man was now floating a couple of centimetres from the ground held up by something they couldn't see.

Beside him he heard Crowtassha say, "Now who wants to bet that's some huge bloody heartless holding him up come to ruin our day."

Dodging as the unseeable enemy came charging his way, Sora struck at it with his key blade, "But why would it be doing this?" he asked.

"Hey if he's given in to darkness it'll not only explain this but all his actions today!" Crowtassha replied back as she began attacking the enemy. After a while more her guess was proved correct as the enemy suddenly flowed with colour and became visible. It was indeed a heartless, as the symbol on its chest advertised. It was shaped like a chameleon and coloured light and dark green.

"Told ya." She yelled across the battle field.

The battle was harsh, and the giant heartless was strong and fast, and with Clayton lying above its head it flew about the battle laying them down in fell swipes, but they always got back up because this battle had to be won.

After many close calls the Heartless finally stumbled backwards and Clayton fell from its head. No longer having its protection, the man did the only thing he could and pointed his trusty gun at them, but he failed to take note of the stumbled Heartless behind him which then fell forward, landing right on top of him. When the Heartless disappeared the man was out cold.

The battle over, the group turned around and found to their surprise, the black ape Kerchak. Wondering what he was doing, Sora wasn't prepared for when he placed a hand on his shoulder took hold of him and threw him into the air and over the edge of a close earthen wall. Luke and Crowtassha were only slightly more prepared. Tarzan climbed up after them, and cast a fleeting look back at Kerchak. The two held each other's gazes for a moment, before Kerchak turned around and left the area with the rest of the apes.

Walking over to them, Tarzan looked over a great body of water that decorated the other side of the wall, "Tarzan, Home."

Looking around the place, Sora said, "This must be the nesting grounds."

"Guess so." Crowtassha said after him.

Tarzan led them all through a small tunnel that came out behind a waterfall. The scene they entered was beautiful. Ledges climbed high up to the top of the cascading water and it cast a blue tinted glow on everything around them. Taking in everything around them, they followed Tarzan as he led them up the high ledges with a certain location in mind. Eventually, they were led to a small cavern at the top of the falls. There was nothing notable inside apart from some moss that a group of bright blue butterflies fluttered over. Looking over the place, none of them could figure out the reason for the ape man bringing them here.

"Why did he bring us here?" Crowtassha asked, as they saw Jane approaching from the cavern's mouth with the small ape from before playing at her heels.

To answer her question Tarzan placed a hand to his ear requesting them to listen. His meaning was lost on Crow, but Jane got it.

"The waterfalls." She said "They're echoing all the way here.

Tarzan said something in ape language, something which Sora recognised to be the word he had first said to him, and then said "Friends there, see friends."

"I've got it, that word means 'heart'" Jane answered for them, "Friends in our heart."

"Oh," Sora mumbled, "That's what it meant.

Tarzan began to speak again, "Friends, same heart. Clayton lose heart. No heart, no see friends, No heart, no friends."

"Ooh!" Crowtassha hummed. Shrugging her shoulders she draped her arm over Sora shoulders, "Well no clue on our King's whereabouts, but a good lesson all the same." Looking over to Luke she told him, "And you should remember that too you know, don't be so loner all the time." she said as she pulled him over and away from his loner corner.

Staring at the blue butterflies hovering over the centre of the wall in front of him, Sora felt the keyblade summon itself again and direct itself to their centre. A burst of light shot forth like the last time and the outline of a keyhole appeared before fading away.

From the keyhole, a shard fell at Sora's feet, and picking it up he saw it to be once again Mythacite. The sight of it made Crowtassha's face screw up and she groaned, "Dear lord we're not having a normal day with that stuff are we?"

Relinquishing her hold on Luke she walked to the entrance of the cavern, "Well come on, I think it's about time we went."

"Oh you're going?" Jane voiced.

"Yeah." Crowtassha replied, "Have to sometime don't we?"

"I guess you do." Jane conceded. "Come back and visit us some time won't you?"

"Sure." Sora told her as he walked passed her and exited the cavern with Luke and Crow.

Outside Crowtassha pulled the piece of Mythacite that would take them to their ship from her pocket, and readied to use it.

"This world was different." She said.

"Not as bad as the last one." Sora countered.

Giving a little laugh, she turned to Luke and asked, "What's your opinion?"

A couple of hands movements and a weird twist of her mouth later, and she replied to him "You know I don't think the hacksaw was necessary."

Luke shrugged his shoulders to show he didn't care and Crowtassha gave him a look before returning her attention back to the Mythacite shard. Sora didn't even bother to ask what he had said.

The shard lit up, and they were gone.

* * *

><p><em>To answer what Luke said, it had something to do with getting a hack saw and obliterating any world that reacted to the ship like this one had. Only I don't think that's remotely possible. That's kind of the problem with Luke, he writes himself so most of the time not even I get what he says, he just says it.<em>

_Also something I noticed I wrote in there that's probably useless to you, but I wrote 'Luke and Crow readied their weapons', except Luke doesn't use a weapon, just Mythacite shards. I'm not much of a fan of Donald's wands. I am of some of them, but not most of them. I realise this is pretty nit-picky of me but for some reason my mind said I had to make a note of it._

_P.S, My favourite part of this chapter was when Crowtassha flew into the winmdscreen the second time, and my favourite line was " I don't think the hacksaw was necessary."_

_I have to say but I'm not too ssure what I'm doing for the alladin chapter. I could use the same sort of storyline in a different situation, like fantasy sort of stuff, but I think it might get too similar to what I'm planningt for the Lion king one. If anyone has some ideas for me I 'd love them._

_Please review, they help me maintain my sanity, which after being driven out of my mind by KH 3D, would be a really big help to me._


	7. Disappear into nothing

_Hello everyone and welcome to the seventh chapter of DBF._

_This chapter was a bitch to write, couldn't tell you why either, but for some reason it took me two weeks to write instead of one. I was kind of busy though, went places, got distracted like usual. That sort of stuff._

_Few things I have to say about it though, the name Zlo suka is pronounced Zoi suka, and it's Russian for evil bitch. And I'm not quite sure what my mind did to Merlin, whatever it did I had no control of it what so ever, like what happened to the Chestsire cat. I think it happened because of all those game ads I watched the day I wrote the scene he was in. Hence he sort of looks like Noctis from Final fantasy versus._

_Also Maleficent technically isn't in this, there's a story to that, but you'll get told that later on._

_Anyway hope you enjoy that chapter._

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix does.**

* * *

><p><em><strong>Disappear into nothing<strong>_

Darkness filled a chamber and painted it black. A small group of people were inside it, their lips curving up into smirks the darker their subject grew. Some stood by a stone table in the middle of the room, whereas some opted to hang back by the walls, unseen by all.

"How come the heartless appeared in that world?" Questioned the voice of a man who leaned upon the table.

"The hunter lured them there." A female voice answered for him. Unlike the man's, this voice held an overbearing tone of authority. Authority that wasn't to be questioned. A smile lit the features of the woman it belonged to as she continued, "Unfortunately he wasn't a bright man, he couldn't even see his end when it was right in front of him. He would have never survived allying with that Heartless."

"And he didn't." A wispy voice breathed from the shadowy corners of the room.

"Hmm, that he didn't." The female voice concurred. Shifting her weight she continued, "Unlike him though that Kid seems to be proving to be a problem."

"Indeed." The voice of the male beside her agreed, "He found one of the Keyholes." Turning to his female companion, he said, "At the very least he hasn't caught on to our other plan."

"The princesses you mean?" The female said, "That he hasn't." flicking her long black hair out of the way, and chuckled delightedly to herself as she waved two people over with her hand she said, "Talking about the Princesses, Azure, Garnet, bring that prisoner of yours over here."

From another corner of the room two women came fourth. They were most obviously Dark seekers, one with eyes of blue and one with eyes of red, hence the titles they had bestowed upon themselves. Between them struggled a captive. Said captive put on a brave bravado in the hands of their captors but fear unmistakably shone behind their eyes.

This captive was a girl with long blonde hair who wore a gothic dress with patterns of card symbols decorating its ends. This girl was Alice.

**…:…**

Sora sat back in his seat on their ship as the space between worlds whizzed by in front of him on the way back to Traverse town. He'd mentioned after they had left Tarzan's world how the Mythacite shard they had attained from the cave was nothing like the others they had seen so far. So her curiosity sparked, Crowtassha had said that they should go to Leon to see if he might know what it was. Luke had agreed.

So to traverse town they went. Only on their way there they happened upon another world which in their curiosity they decided to visit. Though when they got there they found themselves in front of a huge coliseum. Upon entering it they were presented with a huge looking, rather preoccupied, man who when they tried to speak to waved them off and told them to go move this ginormous stone block. The block was so large that one look was enough to know they'd never be able to move it.

Telling him that they couldn't move it he started to question them absurdly about how in the world that was possible, until he turned around to realise he had the completely wrong person. Giving them a rudely short apology he explained to them how something he called "The games" were soon going to start here and how he was really busy at the moment and tried to shoo them away. Only he made the mistake of saying how these "Games" were only a place for Heroes to participate in. And that had Sora and Crowtassha fired up in no time, even Luke looked a little put off. So a great argument erupted between them and the nameless man about how they were Heroes and how he was dead wrong. In the end they got him to put then to a little test. Of course even after that the man, as stubborn as he was refused to accept them as Heroes, and sent them on their way.

So here they were back on track to Traverse town all a little more annoyed then they had been before they went to that world. Looking out the window Sora tried slowly to stop letting what the man had said get to him and decided to try and think of something else.

A new topic came quick to him, for there had been something playing on his mind for a while now. Ever since Tarzan had told them all those things about friends and how they were connected to your heart, it had brought this topic back from the far reaches of his mind where it had rested for a very long time. He had a nagging feeling that Crowtassha might not like what it was if she knew the full truth of it, but what could he do about that? It didn't matter what the circumstances were this was something he now knew he had to do.

He might not be able to help, and maybe there was no way to fix it, or if it even needed fixing, it didn't matter. Scrunching his hand up as he looked out at the space that passed the window he knew truly that he had to do this now.

He had to understand what had happened to him.

**…:…**

Arriving at Traverse town their first matter of business was to ask Cid if he knew where Leon was. He hadn't been much of a help to Crowtassha and Luke the last time they'd been here so they hoped he would this time. Making their way to Cid's shop they found the man behind the shop counter smoking avidly like usual. Walking up to him Crowtassha was the first to ask as she leaned casually on the counter, "So Cid, you wouldn't happen to know where Leon is about now-unlike last time." She added grumpily.

"Not my fault if I didn't know where he was last time." The man shot back gruffly, taking his cigarette out of his mouth to empty the ashes into an ashtray. Placing the cigarette back in his mouth he took a moment to think, scratched his chin and replied, "Hmmm, right about now he should be down in second district at that hidden training place of his."

"And where would that be?" Crowtassha asked.

"You'll find it." Cid replied, "You have to go down to the fountain at the bottom of the stairs, where the door is there. Go through that to the end of the alley and it's through the grating in the waterway. Leon should be there."

"Kay." Crow said as she got up off the counter. While the three of them were walking away she turned back slightly and yelled, "You better not be wrong again or you don't wanna know what I'm going to do you!"

Sora was pretty sure he didn't want to know either.

Following Cid's directions they came to the end of a darkened alleyway where from between steel bars water flowed through into pools. Slipping between the bars they found themselves in a little cave. Further exploration led them into a wider area where it became vastly lighter. Here they spotted Leon practicing with his Gunblade, and the brown haired women Sora had seen briefly as he first left Traverse town with Crowtassha and Luke.

Walking up to them Crowtassha enthusiastically greeted the brunette girl, a greeting that was returned with equally as much zest, while totally ignoring Leon. Saying hello to him himself, Sora and Leon waited for the girls to calm down.

After a time Crowtassha and the brunette let go of each other's hands and came back to reality. Quickly realising that Sora had yet to be properly introduced to her Crowtassha grabbed hold of him without warning and pushed him in front of her, right in the face of the brunette woman.

"Sora this is Aerith, I used to annoy her when she was a little kid." She paused and put a finger to her chin, "As I recall she hated my guts."

Holding out her hand for Sora to take Aerith greeted him jubilantly, "It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too." He replied

With greetings over and done with Leon stepped forward and asked, "So what have you three been up to?"

"Weird things." Crowtassha shot out before anyone could say a word more. Leon's eyebrows shot up but he didn't question her about what she meant, he may have wanted to but he made no move to do so. Aerith on the other hand just took it in her stride. Sora decided then that he liked her.

Waiting a moment to see if she would say anything more, Sora went on to give Leon a quick brief over what they had done in the past two worlds, and of their strange welcoming at the coliseum.

Nodding when his summary was done, Leon said, "So you've found a Keyhole."

"Yeah." Sora replied with a nod of his head, "The Keyblade locked it automatically. But what exactly are they?"

"They lead of the world's heart." Aerith said from his side.

Looking her way, Sora asked, "The world's heart?"

Aerith nodded. "Yes, every world has one, just like people do. It is them the heartless seek most of all."

Listening, Sora questioned her further, "And what happens if they find it?"

"The world is destroyed." Leon said from in front of him.

"What!" Sora and Crowtassha yelled in unison. Looking over to her Sora guessed this was a subject that she didn't know either.

Leon nodding, "Yes, that is why your Keyblade is so important, it can lock the Keyhole and in turn block the heartless from getting through them. So for you, I guess visiting the worlds is good, for it will do more than to just help you track down Crowtassha and Luke's King."

Piping up, Crowtassha cut in, "Okay , well we'll keep doing that then, but how do you know about this? I've never been told it before."

"It was in Ansem's report." Aerith explained.

"Ah yes, forgot about that thing..." Crow mumbled to herself, play-hitting herself on the head.

Watching as Luke began to drift away from them distractedly; Sora suddenly remembered why they had come here in the first place. Fishing in his pocket for the strange Mythacite shard they had found he held it out to Leon.

"I just remembered, but do you have any idea what sort of shard this is? It dropped out of the Keyhole."

Taking it, Leon looked over it and handed it back to Sora, "I don't I'm sorry, try asking Cid, he should know."

Blowing an extremely audible sigh Crowtassha lamented loudly. "Awe, and we were just there, now we have to go back again."

Shrugging off her comment Leon didn't pay it much mind, but as her, Sora and an oddly distracted Luke began to walk off he seemed to remember something that he had left unsaid and called for Sora to wait up. Pulling a small stone from his pocket he threw it to the boy.

"Take that, I've been keeping it as a lucky charm but I think you'll have more use for it."

"Thanks." Sora said, pocketing it. With no more reason to stay the three of them headed back to Cid's.

**…:…**

At Cid's they handed the man the unidentified Mythacite shard. He took it and scanning it with knowing eyes declared them all idiots, "How could none of ya even know what a navigational shard is?"

"Hey we don't know everything about Mythacite, but we need it to travel through the worlds." Sora countered for them.

"Right, right. Nothing to get angry about." Cid conceded.

"So what does it do exactly?" Crowtassha asked as Sora noted that she was sitting in a rather weird way on the counter, or rather, she was sitting on it like a frog. Whichever way you wanted to put it.

"It helps you reach new places. It finds em and leads ya there instead of ya being forced to find em on your own." Placing the shard on the counter top he offered, "If ya want I could install it in ya ship for ya."

"You'd do that for us? Thanks." Sora said.

"Sure, it's nothing." Cid waved him off, "In the meantime though, I wouldn't mind if you could deliver something for me while I'm doing it." Pulling out an old looking book he handed it to Sora, "This belongs to a man you'll find in the third district. The book was too beaten up to restore it properly but I reckon I did a good job fixing it up for him."

Taking hold of it, Sora let it rest at his side, "Sure we'll do that for you."

Cid nodded, "He's down that alley way on the left side. You have to use a fire spell to open the door but it's straight ahead from there."

"Got it."

Directions in mind they left the shop.

**…:…**

Luke opened the door in the third district. When it opened there they were led into a gloomy cavern filled with water whose only decoration was an island in the middle. There were large stepping stones that led to it that they used to cross the large body of water. Jumping onto the island from the last of the stones, they were presented with a dilapidated stone hut whose front door had collapsed. Walking around the small structure they found another entrance near the back which they used to enter.

Inside they found it to be quite empty and devoid of life. Looking around the small stone room they found nothing of interest. The only notable thing in it was a raised pedestal placed squarely in the middle of it.

It got to the point that they saw no further reason to remain in the room when the sound of footsteps behind them caught their attention. Turning around they saw the creator of them to be a black haired man who wore an assortment of black cloths and a chain or two. His short sleeved jacket had a fur trimmed collar and was decorated with an image of a silver and gold dragon that simmered in the dim light. The ends of his shirt were tattered some and he had a shining silver lip ring and a small black dragonish tattoo under his right eye.

"Ah, I've been expecting you." He said.

"How'd you know we were coming?" Crowtassha asked, a little sceptical of his words.

"That'd be because I am a magic man." He said lightly, half joking. Stepping forward onto the raised pedestal in the middle on the room he clicked his fingers and instantly the room was filled to the brim with extravagant furniture. Sitting down in an overly decadent chair that was conveniently placed right behind him he said more seriously, "No but seriously, I am a sorcerer and your King asked me to help you."

"You've met our King?!" Crowtassha burst out abruptly, in half disbelief.

"Yes, but briefly. He wanted me to help you with magic." Stopping he pointed to Crow, "Now you must be Crowtassha, he told me that you were a dud with magic and no amount of helping would change that so I'm not here to help you."

Looking down, Crowtassha rubbed her foot sheepishly on the ground, wishing he could have worded that differently. Less honest perhaps.

Redirecting his attention to Sora the man locked his eyes on him, "Now you, you must be the Key. Have to say, but the King had utter faith in these two beside you here that'd they'd find you and nothing I could say would change his mind. It's nice to see that amount of trust nowadays."

Crossing his legs one over the other he went on, "Seeing as I was told your silent friend here who I'm assuming is Luke, is a master of Mythacite magic it'll be you Sora who I'll have to help."

"How'd you know my name?" Sora asked a little curious.

"Magic." The man said with extravagant hand gestures, "Never doubt it and you'll do fine. Oh and also-" he said lifting himself up from the chair briefly he clicked his fingers again and a strange looking crystal like stone on the other side of the room lit up and from within a woman in a blue dress swept forth. Materialising on the ground in a flurry of wind, she bowed politely to Sora and his group, "Hello, I am another being skilled in magic much like Merlin here, who I've observed to have forgotten his introduction, but unlike him I am no sorceress but a guardian of those in need. Since my world was destroyed this Crystal has been my home and protection from my own destruction. I can help with any more people you find of my kind." Bowing slightly once more she gave the spotlight back to the man now known as Merlin.

Looking back to him, the three of them saw him to be standing scratching his chin in thought, slightly embarrassed he mumbled to himself, "Oh yeah, introduction, I knew there was something I'd forgotten." Noticing the stares he was getting he sat back down quickly and finished off what he had to say.

"Okay back to topic. For starters you should give the stone you have in your pocket that you received from Leon to that woman over there, she'll be able to tell you what it is. And also, as to helping you with magic we can start anytime. You can leave if you want and come back later, all that matters is that it is down some time." His speech done he settled into his seat and let them make their decision.

First they handed the stone Leon had given Sora to the woman in the blue dress. She told them that it was the form of someone from another world who had escaped falling into the darkness with his world due to being encased in this stone. She said that if they called for him he would come out of the stone, and if luck was on their side, help them.

Next they handed the book Cid had given them over to Merlin, who praised Cid's handy work and placed the book on a table beside him. He lamented briefly on how it took him so long to get a hold of the book only to get it in horrible condition with pages missing, but he soon let it go. Their task care of they decided now would be the best of times to take Merlin's training seeing that they were here. It wasn't too hard, apart from the fact that Sora found he didn't have the best natural talent for using the elemental Mythacite stones he had. He also noticed how much his repetitive failures seemed to amuse Luke with their hilarity. It bothered him some but he put it down to that he had either forgotten his own troubles when first learning how to use them, or that he had just had a great natural talent with them from the get go. From the looks on Crowtassha's face he guessed it was the latter. It took time but Merlin was a surprisingly patient man, contrary to what his eccentric personally which you might mistake for immaturity might make you think. So by the end of the lesson Sora found he had a much better grasp on the Mythacite magic, good enough that he could use it well in battle. Nowhere near as well as Luke might use it, but he didn't think he could ever reach his level.

The training done, the three of them said goodbye to Merlin and the blue dressed woman and went on their way.

As they left Merlin yelled to them as they walked out of the room, "Pay Cid a visit before you go will you, and give him my thanks or me."

**…:…**

With Merlin's house behind them the friends now walked along the alleyway that led to his cavern in the third district. A few steps more and the presence of heartless was felt as two of the black monsters formed in front of them. But before any of them could draw their weapons both of them were engulfed in black flames and disintegrated, and from the high ledge that circled the third district dropped a lone figure.

This figure was to Crowtassha and Luke unrecognisable, but to Sora there was only one possible answer to who this could be, and he had known it right from the moment he had seen the silhouette. The boys startling blue eyes were unneeded to confirm the identity of who now stood before him.

"Riku." He breathed.

Smiling eerily as he tossed a black wing shaped blade from hand to hand, the boy replied, "Long time no see."

Confused, Crowtassha came up from behind the stunned Sora and asked him, "Who is this guy?"

She didn't get her answer, Sora was too shocked to form one, and besides there was another more pressing matter he wanted to know. "What are you doing here?" He asked the boy in front of him. When he had last met him on the island the night the darkness had taken it he hadn't seemed very benevolent. In fact he'd seemed the opposite. Anything he wanted out of him couldn't be good, it had him worried.

"I was looking for you, what else." He answered.

To his side, Sora felt Crowtassha tense. Behind both of them he heard Luke take a couple wary steps back. Obviously they had sensed what he had about Riku. A wrongness, a sense of danger. But unlike him they could never have comprehended what that truly meant like him. They could never know how it was all wrong. From Riku's eyes that hid a darkness behind them or the terrible words he'd spoken to Sora back on the island, of how he didn't care about everyone they knew being engulfed by the darkness with their world. They didn't know how none of it was right.

Ending the silence Riku tore Sora from his thoughts by asking him, "So what have you been up to?"

Sora opened his mouth to say something but it felt like his throat had closed on itself. No words came out. What should he say? He wondered, would it be dangerous in itself to even whisper a word of his activities to Riku, for how the boy seemed like such a malevolent force. But how he was an actual threat to them Sora couldn't say. It was just that telling him anything didn't seem safe. So he kept it brief, "We've been traveling worlds."

He caught Crow's eye in his own as he looked to the side fleetingly, she too looked very worried. Specifically as to how much he was going to tell this mysterious boy she didn't know.

Turning his back on Sora, Riku began to walk forward to the middle of the area, tapping the wing-blade lightly on the ground as he did. "What have you been doing in these worlds?" He queried.

"Nothing much." Sora replied, seeing Crow visibly relax in the corner of his eye.

Stopping, Riku tilted his head ever so slightly to catch Sora's eyes. There was a look in his eyes that scared Sora more than any had before it. That look was dangerous, and held unforetold fury, but was gone as quick as it had come.

Continuing on like nothing had happened Riku went to speak again but a sound from behind Sora cut him off. Reacting to the sound Sora realised instantly that it meant more heartless were materialising behind him, so twisting on his heel he summoned the keyblade to his hand and the monsters were gone almost as quick as they had come.

Turning back around to Riku, Sora let the keyblade hang limp in his hand. When the boy came back into his sights Sora realised suddenly that he had been holding his attention. Riku was staring at him in the oddest of ways. But not at him he realised, but the weapon in his hand.

"That weapon." He said, and something about his words sent chills down Sora's spine, for as simple as they were he couldn't tell if they were spoken out of recognition or if they were a true inquiry.

"It's the keyblade," Crowtassha said before Sora could get anything in, "Sora is the master of it."

Still staring at the object in question, Riku slowly whispered the words to himself, then seemed to come back to the world of the present and said, "I've heard rumours of it, I didn't actually know if it was real or not."

"Well it is." Crowtassha bit back a little too forceful. Looking at her Sora could see how hard she fought back the fear that Riku had created in her. She looked like she was close to breaking down in a panic, but if you weren't close to her you might have not noticed.

Looking away from them, Riku began pacing distractedly, this time coming closer as he let his wing-bladed sword drag across the ground slightly. Casting a glance at Sora he said, "So that means you're a fighter against the Heartless." Much more quietly he mumbled to himself just loud enough for Sora and Crow to pick up on "You never know who you know."

Biting her lip anxiously Crowtassha moved closer to Sora so she could whisper in his ear, "Sora I don't care how you know this guy but something is wrong, this conversation needs to end."

Nodding to her ever so slightly so she could know he'd heard her, "I kn-" He began to say only to stop short noticing a sudden lightness in his hand. He snapped his eyes back to Riku to see that the boy now held the Keyblade in his hand.

Shocked he questioned him as quick as he could form words, "How did you-"

Glancing along the blade of the weapon in his hand Riku shrugged, "Doesn't matter." Looking back to Sora he threw the keyblade at him, "Catch."

Catching it, Sora took a tight hold of it. To his right he saw Crowtassha take a step back, no longer able to stay by his side with the object of her fear so close.

"Why are you talking to us?" She asked unable to keep the fear out of her voice anymore.

Again Riku shrugged, "I wanted to know a few things, nothing more."

Crow tried to talk again but her voice failed her so Sora spoke in her stead, "What things?" He asked.

"Things I'll keep to myself." The boy answered.

Taking his eyes off Riku Sora responded to Crow tapping him on the back, "What?" he asked her as he turned to face her.

"We need to get out of here Sora I can't take this anymore."

Sora nodded "Yeah." Seeing movement coming from behind Crowtassha Sora tried to warn her of it but was too late to tell her before a hand grasped her arm.

Her first response was to jump a metre in the air and scream her head off. Landing back on the ground she twisted around to find out what Sora already knew. That the person who had scared her had been no one other than Luke.

He signed to her two signs and abruptly she shot her gaze back to where Riku had been and scanned the area intensely. Wondering what Luke had told her Sora looked to where Crowtassha was, asking "What is-" But when he looked the question was answered for him.

"He's gone." He said. Riku had completely disappeared.

"Yeah." Crowtassha mumbled in a shocked but vastly calmer voice.

Watching the area for a time Crowtassha soon turned back to Sora, "Who was that?" she asked.

"Riku." Sora answered still staring at the place where he had been. How in the world he could have disappeared like that when he had only been there a moment ago would forever be beyond him.

"I noticed that," She said annoyed by Sora absentness, "But who is he? How do you know him?"

Gulping Sora guessed that a painful look must have crossed his face for the next words out of Crowtassha mouth were apologetic.

"Sorry," she mumbled, "If's it's too painful you don't have to tell me."

"No." Sora cut her off, "It's fine." Looking up at her he gave her the best smile he could muster right now and told her, "It's bad to keep secrets from friends anyway."

Crowtassha gave him a smile back and from behind her Sora saw a look in Luke's eye. Once again he couldn't quite place it but it seemed like a good one rather than bad as opposed to others he'd seen reflected in his eyes.

"So who is he?" Crowtassha repeated one last time.

Gulping again, Sora fought his way past all the bad memories that came with this topic, "He used to be a friend."

"Used to be?" Crowtassha inquired; to her side Luke looked curious as well.

"Yeah, I don't know what happened to him really, but he stopped talking one day, and suddenly he didn't hang out with of the other kids anymore and just stayed by himself."

"What in the world?" Crowtassha muttered to herself confused by Sora's explanation.

Sora shrugged his shoulders, "I don't get it either, your guess is as good as mine really."

Slumping his shoulders Sora frowned. This really wasn't a topic he liked, there were so many bad things attached to it in his mind. No words could describe how much it had hurt to lose his best friend.

Seeing his melancholy mood Crowtassha put on a cheery face and offered, "Hey let's get off this topic if it's upsetting you so much. How about we go back to Cid for starters and give him Merlin's thank you, then we'll see what we'll do from there."

Seeing that she was trying her earnest to cheer him up, Sora gave her a small smile, a pitiful attempt at one even by that classification, but a smile nonetheless, "Sure."

Returning his smile Crowtassha grabbed hold of his arm and began to pull him along to the door that led back to the first district, "Come on then."

As they walked to the door Luke followed them from behind, looking rather distracted by something that existed in his mind alone.

**…:…**

Back at Cid's shop they found it absent of the man's presence. The man who was minding the counter when asked where Cid happened to be responded with: "He's down at his house in the third district."

The response drew a loud sigh out of Crowtassha and the woman slapped a hand to her head and complained, "Oh, and we were just there. Why does this keep on happening?!"

Smiling a little at his friends actions, Sora turned back to the man behind the counter and thanked him, before him and Luke regained Crow's attention and they exited the shop.

From there they headed back to the third district, with Sora choosing to heavily ignore Crowtassha's constant complaints. Once there they headed up the stairs that were to the left of third district's doorway to where Crowtassha had claimed Cid house to be. Reaching the top Sora found Crowtassha's claim to be right as the house was right before them. Knocking on the door for admittance, the three of them entered upon its opening.

Inside Sora was surprised to find not only Cid, but Leon, as well as Yuffie and Aerith on the other side of the room. Unlike him the others in the room weren't in any way surprised to see him. In fact he had barely taken more than a couple steps into the room when Leon asked him.

"Have you ever heard of Zlo suka?"

"No." Sora answered, "Who are they?"

"She," Leon interjected, "She's a witch. She's half the reason the heartless are in this town, been working with them for years. She even had her hand in the collapse of our world."

"The collapse of your world?" Sora questioned him.

"Yeah," Cid cut in this time. "'Bout nine years ago, her and the dark seekers worked together to help the heartless take over our world. When it turned south I got the hell out of there and took these three with me, ended up here one way or another."

"Oh." Sora mumbled under his breathe, guess it turned out that these guys didn't have a situation that much different from his own, "Sorry about that."

"Nothing to be sorry about, it was a long time ago now anyway." Cid shut him up.

The room went quiet for moment before Sora asked them all, "Do you miss your world?" God knows he certainly did.

"Of course." Aerith replied, getting up from her position on a chair in the corner and walking closer, "It was a lovely world you know, before it was overrun by heartless and all. We had a leader called Ansem the wise. He knew a lot about the heartless too he did, had a whole report written about them. And if we had it, it would certainly be a great help."

"What happened to it?" Sora asked.

"The pages were scattered." Aerith told him, now standing before him.

"Chances are Zlo suka has most of them." Leon said from where he was leaning against the wall.

"Unfortunately." Aerith concurred, slowly beginning to make her way to the door.

Taking this all in, Sora finally remembered to ask, "Just a question, but why are you telling me this?"

"Oh," Aerith hummed placing a hand on her mouth, "Almost forgot the subject of this talk did we, we're saying it because Zlo suka is in town. And I'd watch out if I was you because if recall she was a very sour person indeed. Absinth was nicer than her."

"Absinth?" Sora questioned her, curious. He'd never heard that name before, but from the looks of everyone in the room, Luke and Crowtassha included, they certainly had.

Aerith made another oh sound and explained for him, "Sorry I forgot you wouldn't have heard of her. Ten years ago she was an infamous name amongst the Dark seekers. Some people said she was their leader, some said she served as their leader's right hand man; it was all very vague really. But she was actually kind of nice, crazy, but nice."

"Okay," Sora mumbled. That was an odd to end an explanation, "What happened to her then?"

Aerith shrugged, "I don't know, no one does. She just up and disappeared, it happens sometimes with Dark seekers. Nothing really to care about any more, the problem you have now is Zlo suka, and trust me when I warn you about her, because she is someone who poses you a real danger in the current."

Sora nodded and decided that perhaps he'd best take her advice, then noticing how she seemed intent on leaving he asked, "Where are you going?"

"To look for Kairi, she was acting funny last time I saw her and I haven't seen her since." She answered before turning the door knob and bidding them all good bye before slipping out the door. As the door started to close after her something caught Sora's eye so he grabbed it before it shut. In the corner of his eye he could see Leon's eyes flash his way for a second before returning to where Crow was talking to Cid.

Hearing her pass on Merlin's thanks to the man, Sora slipped out to investigate what he had seen. When he was outside he was surprised to see that he had seen right. Standing on the stairs leading up to the house was the figure of a girl. He didn't know who she was, nor could he make her out properly as the shadows obscured her form but what he could tell was that she was wearing a short dress, and her hair was cut above her neck, and on her chest rested a golden locket emblazoned with the face of a wolf.

Her bright eyes watched him intensely, before after many moment of watching him she said, "He knows everything you know. Nothing you can do will avoid his eyes. Til the very end he'll always know."

Confused, the words to question her rose to his lips but a call from behind him distracted him and made him turn around to see Luke and Crowtassha coming out of Cid house. When he looked back the girl was gone.

"What the-" Sora muttered.

Walking up to him Crowtassha slung her arm around his shoulders, "What are you doing out here?" she asked.

"There was a girl here." He answered her.

"Then where is she now?" Crowtassha asked a little confused.

"I don't know, she was gone when I looked back."

"Kaaay." Crowtassha drawled, backing off a bit, "Well Cid told me he installed the navigational shard in the ship for us, also Yuffie told me, or rather yelled at me that we had to go check out that bell in second district. Something about how it was strange that it was ringing earlier and another thing about ringing it three times.

"And my thing was strange?" Sora asked her.

Pouting, Crowtassha crossed her arms, "Your thing was strange, just because Yuffie decided to yell me instructions instead of telling me them doesn't make it more strange then this disappearing girl of yours."

Sora had to agree with her on that. Still the Yuffie thing couldn't be normal.

"So then, we going to head to Second district or not?" Crowtassha cut in, taking him away from his thoughts.

Nodding Sora replied, "Yeah." And to the second district they went.

**…:…**

Two people sat on a roof top watching in on a conversation going on behind an uncovered window. Smirking to herself the older of the two asked, "So did you find out what you needed."

Watching the interaction happening behind the window intently with startling blue eyes, the younger one, a boy replied, "Yeah."

Her smirk widening the woman pushed her long hair back behind her shoulders, "So we can go then? I don't care what you came here for, but at least it was good for me to get a close up look at our enemies, but seriously, having sealed a Keyhole or not I don't see how a child like that will ever be a threat to me." Her sentence finished she got up and walked away leaving the younger boy behind her.

Still sitting on the cold rooftop, Riku let a smile come on to his face as he looked through the window of Cid house. The only thought that came to mind, was how much he'd enjoy seeing Zlo suka drown in her naivety when the time came.

**…:…**

The bell it turned out, happened to be positioned on the top of that giant white building that decorated the end of the second district. Once they got to it and walked inside, the interior of the building turned out to be in truth much different than Sora would have thought. It was a colourful mess of bizarre contraptions that covered all the walls.

Their only problem, one step inside summoned countless Heartless into existence, which when killed another step would only summon more. And so every step literally became a battle as they worked their way through the peculiar room. Until after a long and tiring fight they finally managed to reach the door on the other side of the building and got outside. Quite breathless Crowtassha pointed out a ladder that lay against the structures left. Regaining their wind after the straining battle within the white building they climbed the ladder.

On the roof Sora scanned the area and found it to be rather plain. The only notable thing on it was the boarded up alcove that covered the bell. Walking over to it Sora pulled on the wooden planks that covering the bell, becoming disappointed when he found them too sturdy to pull off. Scratching his head, he turned to Crowtassha, "So how are we going to get this off?"

Inspecting it briefly, she turned to Luke, gesturing him to come over with a twitch of her head, "You think you could help us with this?"

Looking over the wood like Crowtassha had, Luke took hold of its sides and without further ado, ripped it clean off the wall nails and all.

Whamming Crowtassha right in the face.

She fell to the ground like a ton of bricks where she remained senseless. Sora backed off as the wooden board clattered to the ground as Luke dropped it, and both their eyes wandered down to the girl on the ground before Sora's shot up to Luke dumbfounded. His first thought apart from the state of Crowtassha's consciousness was how he hadn't even been able to make the board move an inch, and yet Luke tore it off like it was nothing. He couldn't see how in the world there could be that great a difference in strength between the two of them. Luke didn't look that strong.

Taking full notice of Sora's stares Luke raised his eyebrow at the look he was being given and curtsied to him with theatrical hand movements, making fun of his surprise. There was a slight smile on his lips as well. Sora first reaction was to pout before he remembered the unconscious Crowtassha. He was about to kneel down to check on her when Luke stopped him with a sign.

_'Wait.'_

Confused as to why he was stopping him Sora almost missed that this was the first time he'd actually understood something Luke had said. Or signed, whichever way you wanted to put it. Standing back up straight Sora asked him, "Why?"

Luke just signed _'Wait'_ to him again and remained where he was waiting as the seconds went by. The more time past the more confused Sora became, until after the minute mark was drawing nearer he heard Crowtassha coming to. She was mumbling things incoherently that he couldn't make sense of matter how hard he tried to. A couple more seconds passed and she lurched up suddenly without warning.

"Fishcake!"

Jumping an easy three feet backwards Sora nearly fell over in his surprise. Sending a look to Luke the boy let another smile cross his face, "You knew she'd do that didn't you?" He accused.

Luke nodded, and ditched proper sign language for simple hand gestures to know Sora would understand him. He pointed to Sora than to Crowtassha who sat on the ground cradling her head still rather out of it. Figuring that he meant he wanted him to help her, Sora knelt down beside her to check on her. Looking up to Luke he asked him as he pried Crow's hands away from her head, "Why don't you help?"

In response Luke pointed to her, made a slitting motion across his throat and then pointed to himself. Sora got the message easily, finally managing to make Crowtassha keep her hands off her head and in her lap. If Luke tried to go near her, she'd kill him. Still that didn't stop her as she came back to reality and looked up to Sora, registered what just happened, looked up to Luke, and then burst off the ground aiming for his throat screeching, "I'll kill you!"

Luckily for Luke she was still out of it thanks to her hit to the head and went sprawling to the side instead of hitting her target. Luke caught hold of her easily by taking hold of her arm so she didn't go falling forward and hurt herself again. Still holding her hanging form with one hand he signed to Sora what he was pretty sure meant _'See?'_

Letting Crowtassha down easily Luke walked around to her front and brought a Mythacite shard from his pocket. Using it on her the sizable bump on her head went down and her wooziness subsided. Shaking her head, she got back up taking hold of Luke arm to help her. Wrapping it around him once she got to her feet she pulled an evil smile and told him, "If you weren't useful I'd kill you right now."

Still in her hold Luke signed to her, _'You know it wasn't my fault, right?"_

"Don't care." She shot off, letting go of him finally and redirecting her attention to Sora she told him. "Hey ring that bell three times, let's see what happens."

"Kay." Sora nodded, choosing to ignore his friend's strange exchange, he walked up to the now exposed bell and pulled on the bell rope three times. It tolled across traverse town and the three of them looked about to see if it had done anything.

To their surprise the effect was quite visible. Across from them the mosaic patterned tile design that was behind the fountain at the start of the district changed. It turned three times until it landed on ones of butterflies before changing again. But this time it didn't turn, it began to glow until that glow took shape and revealed something.

Watching it intently Crowtassha said "Whoa, it's lucky whatever tolled the bell before didn't find that."

"Yeah," Sora agreed with her, "That's the Keyhole." And so it was, on the mosaic tile the Keyhole had formed before their very eyes.

Straightening up, Sora was the first to begin walking to the ladder, "We'd better go to it then, before anything else does."

Crowtassha nodded completely agreeing with him. Following after Sora, Luke followed after the both of them.

**…:…**

Once they got to the fountain Sora was surprised to find something there he hadn't expected there to be. Walking closer his eyes turned upwards to view the figure sitting on the built up stone rim that circled the higher ledge of the district.

"Kairi." He voiced to get her attention.

Snapping her head down to him she was torn from the trance she had been in, "Sora." She said as surprised to see him as he was her, she had been so out of it she wasn't even aware of his approach, "What are you doing here?"

Staring at her perplexed he pointed to the shining Keyhole below her feet, "That." He explained.

Staring down at the thing in total surprise, she was caught out, "H-how did I not notice that?" She questioned herself.

"Well you looked pretty out of it when we got here." Crowtassha offered from Sora's side.

Gazing over to her like she'd just noticed she was there as well, Kairi rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, "Yeah I guess that was it."

Looking to the side fleetingly, her eyes wandered back to Sora. Her eyes looked sad and there seemed to be a topic weighing heavy on her mind, but it was a while before it formed itself into words. Swallowing over a lump in her throat, she started, "Sora there's-"

"I want to save Riku." He cut her off.

At first Kairi looked surprised, but then she settled down and a smile lit her face and the heavy emotions that had been hovering over her disappeared. She opened her mouth to say something but Crowtassha's shocked emotions managed to form themselves into actions before she could.

"What!?" She yelled, "You want to save that crazy shit? What's there to save anyway!"

Flinching back from her explosive reaction Sora saw that behind her Luke's surprise and disbelief was as obvious despite his silence. Both of the looks they were giving were questioning his sanity one way or another.

But he ignored them, this wasn't something they'd understand. He'd known that long before he'd said it. So he gave Kairi his attention instead. Only her reaction to Crow's words was much more worrying.

She had abandoned her seat on the ground to stand and was in utter hysterics. Staring at Crowtassha with mad eyes she pounded her for an answer, "Have you met him!?"

Flinching, Kairi's spiralling emotions brought out fear in Crowtassha. "Y-yes." She stuttered, taking a step back afraid that she'd said something wrong, "Just now, in the third district."

Turning back to Sora Kairi said with equal hast. "I thought you'd only talked with him on the island, I knew that for you it'd be enough for you to see what was wrong."

"I had thought something was off about him even before I met him again after that, the thought of saving was already in my head. But meeting him now only convinced me I had to." Sora told her, though he'd be lying if he said he thought it would calm her down.

"What did he say, what did he ask?" She shot off, pulling on the side of her hair; she bit her lip, "What did you tell him?"

Her eyes probed Sora for an answer; he replied carefully, "He wanted to know what I'd been doing. I didn't saying anything more than I'd been to other worlds. But he found out about how I had the Keyblade, and…and-" He stopped for a moment for the next part of his retelling truly confused him, he wasn't sure how she would react to it. "For a moment he took it off me, and he actually held it, nobody else should be able to do that should they?"

Taking in a deep breath Kairi tried to calm herself down, "No." She answered more level headed now, "They shouldn't." clenching her hands so hard they shook, Crowtassha pushed into the conversation.

"Hey I don't have any idea why she's freaking out so much but how in the hell could you think of helping this guy Sora? Are you crazy?" She walked in front of him and grabbed a hold of his arms, "Seriously, you saw him when we were talking to him right? If you didn't answer a question the way you wanted you to he got angry, really angry. There is something wrong with this guy, he's crazy, and so are you if you're thinking of helping him."

Pushing her away gently Sora tried his best to explain it to her, but it hurt to draw the memories up again for the second time in the same day. It was hard, "You don't get it, you can't get it, you didn't know him. Something is wrong with him." He paused and thought; that didn't fit it. No that wasn't it at all, it was more like, "That's just not him, not the Riku I knew. Something is really wrong with what is happening to him, and I have to know what it is." Crowtassha opened her mouth to argue further but when Sora looked up to her, the pain she saw there shut her up, so the next thing she said was vastly tamer then she had intended it to be.

"What if you're wrong? people change you know."

Sora shook his head, "No that isn't it. I told you he was my friend didn't I? But that doesn't really cut it. I can't remember how I met him, I can't remember how we became friends, we just were ever since we were babies. I knew him better than I did myself, he was my best friend in the whole world. But then something happened and he got sick, then after that he talked to no one, not me, not even his family. And then when the island was being overtaken by Darkness he talked of all of its inhabitants falling into nothingness with it like it was something funny. This included his family, this included me. People don't change that much Crow, something is wrong with him. When we met him those weren't his eyes. That wasn't the boy I knew."

Silent, Crowtassha offered Sora no response, for a long time she just stood where she was, her eyes searching Sora's. Until after a long wait she raised a shaking hand to Sora's shoulder and said, "A best friend huh? Guess I can't complain then." Taking her hand from his shoulder she stood back, "I'm sorry for arguing with you Sora, do what you must."

A little shocked at Crowtassha's quick withdrawal from the argument Sora sneaked a look back at Luke. He too had calmed down, but his stare wasn't directed Sora, it was directed at Crowtassha. There was a knowing look in his eyes, and a sadness Sora couldn't put a name to. The only thing Sora could take out of it was that there was something he didn't know passing between them. But for now he chose not to question it.

Instead he looked back to Kairi, "What is wrong with him?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, but he's been like that for a while, it's just that his quietness made me overlook it." She slumped her shoulders, "I'm so stupid." She muttered to herself, but Sora heard her.

"It's not your fault, no one suspected anything was drastically wrong so why would you?"

Smiling a little seeing that he was trying to cheer her up, Kairi said, "Thank you Sora." Looking up at the sky more thoughts began tumbling through her head, but this time they weren't bad. Letting another small smile slip onto her face she asked, "Hey do you remember how before Riku stopped talking we were all good friends, when this is all over, do you feel like being that again?"

Knowing what she was asking Sora smiled, "Aren't we already doing that."

Smiling back, an unknown voice interrupted their interaction, "Awww, what a cute conversation, too bad I have to cut it short."

Kairi spun around on her heel to find a blonde haired woman standing in front of her. Her golden hair was long and extensively waved and her garment was a slim black dress that showed off her large bust and was slitted all down the left side. A black pearl necklace was wrapped around her neck and a pink belt complemented her round hips. On her lips she wore no more than a devilish smile.

From where he was Sora could only make out the woman's head, and Crowtassha and Luke's extra height did no more to help them. Kairi was the only one in full view of the stranger.

The woman smiled, and took a few jostling steps towards Kairi. She stopped in front of her and placed a hand on her chest. Before Kairi had a chance to jump out of her reach or for anyone else to come to her aid, dreadful words left the woman's lips, "I'm sorry girl, but for you this is the end." And with that black marks on her arm lit up and a burst of bright energy shot through Kairi and knocked her off her feet, sending her flying towards Sora. But as he reached out to catch her, despite being in the right spot, when his arms reached out for her she-

Disappeared.

Dumbfounded, his eyes went to his hands, but surely as he already knew nothing was there. She had legitimately disappeared into nothing. Shooting his gaze back up to the woman who had done the deed he was struck by the feeling that something had gone wrong. Before she had been confident, now that had been replaced by another feeling. Fury.

"Che, he was right." She said to herself, "Oh well, what can you do?" She mumbled shrugging it off. Turning her eyes on Sora and his group she said to them, "Now then, you're the Keyblade wielder and his friends' right? Well I'll have to do away with you too won't I?" Clicking her fingers a purple rip rent the sky and from it a gigantic heartless fell fourth and landed on the ground in front of them. Sora recognised it as the heartless they had defeated here last time. Confused as to what it was still doing alive he sought out the blonde haired woman. Catching her in his sights, she starting speaking again.

"Now last time I remember you killed my precious here, so I had another heartless formed into its shape but decided to give it a little something extra." She clicked her fingers one last time and called back, "Have fun playing with my precious." And as her words faded into nothing so did she.

Turning back to the heartless Sora saw it beginning to move. To his surprise it did what had to be the equivalent of a handstand, only from there what were its leg's twisted around to become its arms, and its head flipped around, so that what used to be its bottom was now its top. With its transformation done its eyes set aglow and it began its attack.

Still recovering from his shock over Kairi's disappearance, Sora's first few attacks were half-hearted and weak, and Luke and Crowtassha weren't doing so much better themselves. Seeing someone disappear like that in front of your eyes isn't something you can walk away from without consequence. And this was theirs; their distraction hampered them greatly in battle.

The heartless's moves didn't differ greatly from the first time they versed it. The main changes were that it was now the legs that spun around in a bid to squish them, while the arms moved about in wild arcs trying to hurt them. They also found that it had an annoying attack where it would lift its head away from the main body and from the empty space left over it would shoot great blasts of energy that injured greatly if you were hit by them.

Sora went for its limbs, but as he also found out after being slammed in the ground by one of its hands, the heartless in this state was much stronger than last time. So to get hit by them meant much more pain then it did last time. And that despite how he tried to ignore it, was as good a deterrent as any.

After a while the battle became gruelling and in her desperation he heard Crowtassha yell out to Luke, "Hey Peridot, Heiki Mythacite!"

Sora had no idea what she was calling for, but obviously, Luke did. He pulled strangely coloured Mythacite shard out of his pocket which Sora couldn't have told you if it was purple or all the colours of the rainbow for the colour its surface was. Holding it tightly in his hands he summoned its powers, but unlike creating a spell like Sora thought it would the whole form of it changed. From a crystal it became a rod that was crested with a skull and feathers whose main body was coloured as ambiguous as the shard it came from.

Confused as to what it was, Crowtassha sidled up beside him seeing his curiosity and hastily explained, "Think of it like an amplifier, it makes all of the magic used through it stronger plus it can use all the powers of the Mythacite the user has on them without them having to hold it." As a hand of the attacking Heartless came down between them the two dodged and separated from each other.

"You should use magic too." She shouted over, "If this thing is going to be a bitch about close combat you might as well." That said she lurched back into battle.

Thinking it over Sora decided to take Crow's advice. Using his ice and fire Mythacite made the battle much easier for him, and with the added on strength of Luke's Heiki Mythacite the heartless began taking damage at a much faster rate. Crowtassha was left of course with having to attack in close combat, but she at least was highly gifted with defence, so she got her hits in regardless.

Soon enough a beam of light burst from the Heartless's core and a heart floated up from where it's head had been, signifying its defeat. With the battle done, Sora's first duty of business was to go up to the shining Keyhole and lift up the Keyblade to seal it. A beam of light shot fourth from the Keyblade's tip and entered the Keyhole, the sound of a lock was proof of it being sealed. Slowly it faded away to leave the butterfly mosaic pattern behind it clear and untouched.

Bending over to catch his breath he put away the Keyblade. Likewise Crowtassha sheathed her dagger and Luke reverted the rod back to its crystal form. Looking up at Luke as he did so, Sora thought to ask Crowtassha, "Hey if that thing's so much stronger that just using Mythacite shards alone how come he doesn't use it more." But one look in Luke's direction again answered the question for him before the words had even left Crow's mouth. Luke was more exhausted than the two of them put together.

"Heiki Mythacite while stronger puts a much bigger strain on the user. It would do an amateur like you in in a second if you so dumb as to try and use it. It's best that it is only used on worthy opponents, otherwise normal Mythacite use is good enough." She told him with a shrug.

Regaining their wind, the memory of the past few moments before the battle came back to them.

"That just happened didn't it?" Sora spoke first.

Luke nodded, while Crowtassha's response was verbal, "Yeah it did, a girl just disappeared into nothing right before our eyes."

So distracted they were by their thoughts that the sound of the second districts door opening made them jump in surprise. But the person who came through it was no enemy. Aerith walked from the closing door right up to the spot Kairi had been before the appearance of the strange woman who had attacked her.

"Sora." She said in surprise, letting her eyes take in other two beside him as well, "What are you doing here?"

He pointed to the pattern behind the fountain, "We found the Keyhole, it's locked now, but-"

"There was a Dark seeker here, did you see her?" Aerith interrupted him in urgency.

Sora nodded, "Yeah." Figuring that that's what the blonde haired woman must have been. Not a very good first meeting with one he had to say, but then again, if they were on the side of Darkness it'd be very hard to have a good one. Though there was one more thing that Aerith needed to know, "Only she-she" he stopped short not knowing exactly how to phrase the next sentence.

"She attacked Kairi, but when she got blown off her feet she, well, she disappeared. Completely into nothing." Crowtassha finished for him.

Aerith's eyes widened, and she began to panic, "You mean she disappeared, just like that?"

"Yeah." Sora said "I'm not sure how."

Aerith started to bite her finger and her eyes flitted about nervously, under her breath she mumbled, "Oh no, not Kairi, anyone but Kairi." Looking back to Sora and his group she waved them over, "Come here." She told them.

Following her orders, Sora and Luke took the stairs close to them, while Crowtassha seemed to find using one of the benches scattered about the place to lever herself up onto the higher ledge was a quicker way. The ending was the same of course as all of them all ended up by Aerith.

Crowtassha was the first to pose her a question, "I know that this is bad if it happened to anyone, but can I ask why Kairi is so important to you guys?"

To their surprise Aerith shrugged, "Truth be told I don't know, all I can say is that from the first moment I met her I knew she had to be protected. I don't know why, that's just how it was, I don't know why she's different. But I can say that it can't be allowed to happen like this." Biting on her lip, she became a little hysterical. "People don't just disappear like that, you have to find her. I don't know how but you have to, I have the worst feeling that something terrible will happen if you don't. Please find her, please!"

Recovering over his shock at her sudden hysteria, Sora gave her a nod, "Sure." He said hoping it had come out steady, because Aerith's explanation had thrown him off and he was a little shaky, "We'll find her for you."

To his side Crowtassha nodded also, "Yeah we will, you'll see, you have nothing to be afraid of." Unfortunately for her, her response didn't come out as well as Sora's but Aerith didn't pay it any attention.

She bowed her head in gratitude, "Thank, oh thank you." Turning on her heel, Aerith looked to them, "I have to tell the others, it'd be best if you guys left about now too." With that she left.

Standing still where Aerith had left them, Crowtassha blew out a sigh of relief and relaxed.

"What was that?" Sora asked.

"I'd say insanity." Crowtassha replied, "Or desperation, either one I've never seen her like that before."

"Me neither." Sora added on. He hadn't known Aerith nearly as long as these two had but she'd struck him as the level headed type. What he'd just seen then was as Crowtassha said - insanity.

Ending the conversation there the three of them headed to the door that Aerith had left through moments before. Once they were back in second district, they were surprised to see Cid standing just outside the back of his shop. By his sad demeanour it was obvious that Aerith must have already passed on the news to him and left.

When they walked up to him he was the first to speak, "Aerith told me about Kairi. Don't be put off by that crazy mood of hers, it was justified, I can't tell you why but things can't be left like this. Something's bad's gonna happen if you don't find her." Straightening up, he went on, "I've installed that navigational Mythacite for you, stuck a warp shard in there too, so that as long as you've been to a world before you can warp there without having to take the long path back there. You'd best head off now, if you've sealed the Keyhole then there's nothing left here but us."

Nodding Sora replied, "Yeah I guess so, see you later then."

"Yeah, see ya." Cid responded with a goodbye wave.

Luke and Crowtassha waved him good bye as well as them and Sora started off down the steps and into the main part of first district.

Blowing out a sigh, Crowtassha complained weakly, "Okay so now we don't only have a King to find but Kairi and a crazy little shit to help." At a look from Sora she quietened down. Sucking in a breath she told him quietly, "I hope you can help him, I know how much it hurts to lose a best friend."

Widening his eyes a little at her reveal, Sora wondered if this was what was meant by the understanding look Luke had given her when she'd backed off from her argument about not helping Riku once she found out he'd been his best friend, "Sorry about that." He said.

She shrugged him off, "You don't have to say that, it was a long time ago now."

"Things like that still hurt though." He argued.

"I guess." She replied, "But what can we do now."

Stopping in front of the large wooden gates that would take them back to their ship, Sora said one last thing, "I hope we find your King."

Smiling, Crowtassha replied, "I hope we do too." Then she pushed open the gates and they left Traverse town behind them

**…:…**

Kairi woke.

Looking from side to side she found she had no idea where she was. Or what it was. Its walls were undistinguishable, so was its floor, even its colour. She could give it no name.

Standing up she looked everywhere for some sort of anything, for the entire place was a blank canvas. And it didn't seem physical, and when she thought about it, for that matter neither did she. Reaching down deep within herself, she came to the realisation that she truly didn't feel whole, but what was missing she had no idea. And yet despite all of it something about this place felt familiar but she couldn't put her finger on what.

Sitting down again a thought came to her, if she was no longer physical then maybe she'd finally be able to reach out to what she'd been trying to grasp for so long. Closing her eyes she outstretched her soul far beyond the walls of her barren prison and heard a voice.

In a small corner of a world where all else was black, this voice said to her-

"So you finally found me."

With her eyes still closed, a smile lit Kairi's features-

"So I did."

* * *

><p><em>Marrharr!<em>

_If anyone gets the fishcake joke when Crowtassha regained consciousness I own you a cookie._

_I'm forgetting what I was going to write here again. I think it might have been something about if your not getting anything about Kairi and Riku, it'll all be explained later on. Also what Kairi was saying before Sora interrupted her was pretty much what he was going to say, she was just happy that him already wanting to help Riku saved her the issue of convincing him too, because she's pretty hell bent on helping him._

_Also I wonder if anyone noticed that when Crowtassha got knocked out that was actually Luke and Sora's first proper interaction with each other. Seventh chapter and they haven't had any up to that point. Sora's only been talking to Crow and everyone else not Luke. But it's good because now Luke gets to have more interaction with the characters, cuz I really like him but he doesn't get much attention in the chapters to date. That's the problem with mute character though isn't it._

_Also knocking Crowtassha out with the wooden plank was entirely my sister's idea because when I told her that Sora couldn't budge them and Luke pulled them off like they were nothing I acted it out without noticing and all she saw in her mind was them ramming Crow in the face. So you have her to thank for that scene._

_Hoped you liked the chapter, please review and tell me what you thought of it, I'll love ya for it._


	8. The glories of the desert

_Hello everyone and welcome to the Eighth chapter of DBF. Sorry it took so long to update, I was procrastinating a little._

_Just a note before you read this chapter but Jafar is a creation of Disney, there was a Vizier in the original story but he was no great harm. The evil in that story was actually an African magician and his brother. So mashing it all up in my head and the evil in this chapter became the Vizier's son. Also no one but Aladdin is named in this chapter, because it was like that in the original story and I like the effect it has. I apologise in advance if it annoys you. The three wishes thing also isn't in that story but it fitted the KH story line better. It's also the same with the wishing Genie free thing, but I decided that my Aladdin is a nice enough that he'd do that sort of thing no matter what. Anything else I've changed you'll notice as you read, some of it was rather uncreative of me I warn you though._

_Oh, and all my villains are hot. So no one's ugly, not even Captain hook would you believe it. Though strangely he's the one who created the hot trend, I just decided to keep going only with it._

_Enjoy the chapter._

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom hearts, Square Enix does.**

* * *

><p><em><strong>The glories of the desert<strong>_

Walking down a dusty street Zlo suka enquired of a finely dressed man by her side, "And the Keyhole?"

"The Heartless are searching for it." He answered "We'll find it soon. So that leaves only-"

"The Princess." Zlo suka finished for him.

"Yes." The man replied with some contempt, "She's nowhere to be found. The girl is more trouble than she's worth."

Snorting the woman by his side reminded him, "You said you had everything under control."

"Oh I assure you, I do, but Agrabah is full of holes for Rats to hide in." He argued in his defence, "But why worry about the Princess, surely this world will be ours once we find the Keyhole."

Zlo suka sighed and shook her head, "Without all seven Princesses of heart we cannot open the final door. One less than that is useless."

"Well then." The man said, "If she's that important we'll find her." Waving one arm outwards he summoned Heartless into being and ordered them "Find the Princess and bring her to me."

Knowing their purpose they rushed off at once to fulfil their command.

Zlo suka stopped walking, but the man continued on. Watching him leave she noted his extended use of Heartless minions, and decided to leave him with some parting words of warning, "Don't steep yourself in the darkness to long, the heartless consume the careless."

But the man simply laughed off her warning, "Your concern is touching but hardly necessary. I'll be fine." Still chuckling to himself he walked off and Zlo suka took her leave.

Neither of them noticed the set of eyes that had been watching them for the entire conversation.

**…:…**

The journey to the next world was uneventful. There was no unexplained turbulence or accidentally found coliseums. Just a straight ride punctuated by Crowtassha as she quietly taught Sora sign language. It was a relief really. And thanks to the uninterrupted flight it wasn't long before they found themselves in another world.

All around them was desert, but just up ahead in the distance they could make out what looked like a town. So, wishing greatly to get out of the stark heat they headed that way. As they walked Crowtassha slipped a question into the universe.

"So, you think we'll find anything here?"

Luke shrugged his shoulders in response.

Frowning at him, Crowtassha smacked his arm, "That's always your answer, couldn't you ever give something more useful." Tiring of him she turned to Sora.

"So, do you have a legitimate response to give, or are you going to be no better than Peridot over here."

Hesitating under Crow's over expectant gaze, Sora scratched his head, "Ahh, I guess we'll just see what we find."

Pursing her lips while she decided whether she liked his answer or not, Crowtassha relaxed and settled back into an easy stride between the two boys, "Yeah that be about right. Can't do much else if we don't know what's here."

Mentally relaxing that Crowtassha hadn't snapped at him as well Sora followed by her side as they continued on to the town that was looming ever closer.

Entering the town they set about searching for something of value-or someone- but the place was deserted. There were obvious signs of people having lived there recently but not a body was to be seen. It polluted the air with an eerie feeling, an eerie feeling that quickly manifested itself in the form of heartless. The heartless came in the shapes of bandits, large and small, but all dangerous. The large ones were treated with special caution, because like with the large heartless found in traverse town, they turned out to be the deadliest.

Defeating the heartless one by one, the three of them stood up straight. Sighing exasperatedly Crowtassha complained loudly, "They're here too."

"Looks like it." Sora replied, but for all it did it only seemed to make Crowtassha look more down.

To the side of him Luke signed something to them. Sora couldn't make out enough of it to fully translate it, but Crowtassha read it's meaning as; _'We can only presume that they'll follow anywhere the key goes.'_

Sighing again Crow slapped her face, "Great." She said with much sarcasm, "Well we'll have that to look forward to now won't we? Not much we can do I guess, the worlds seem infested with them anyway."

Letting her hand slip from her face, she gestured to the path ahead of them, "On we go then, we might as well try to see what we can find in regards to this heartless infestation." Nodding in agreement at her words, they set off in the direction she motioned.

Walking alongside his companions, it was on a lucky whim that Sora looked down a nondescript path and saw a glimmer of movement. Whoever it was caught his eye in their own and froze. Curious, Sora took a few steps towards them. Seeing what he was doing Crowtassha came up behind him with Luke on her tail.

"What ya looking at?" She asked.

Sora pointed to where he could still see faint movement, "Someone's over there."

Squinting at where he was pointing, Crow seemed to see what he was talking about, and followed him down the path into a little closed in area that was walled in on three sides, the fourth being the entrance. And sure as he'd said they were, someone was cowering behind a variety of jars, trying to make themselves unseen.

Treading closer to the person, the woman, for that was what they were, flinched. Backing away a little Sora put up his hands, "Ah, I didn't mean to scare you. We're not here to hurt you if that's what you're afraid of. Just, do you know what's going on around here?"

Looking around fearfully and then back to them, the woman got up hesitantly and stepped away from the jars so she stood in front of them. She had dark skin and beautiful black hair that was braided into many different strands and a turquoise sari made of a flowing fabric. Fidgeting slightly with her clothes she lifted her head to look them in the face.

"I am the daughter of the Sultan of Agrabah. This city was taken over by the son of his loyal Vizier. The Vizier wished for me to marry his son but when I refused, his son showed his true colours and became very angry and set these monsters you see upon the town and refuses to rein them in until I agree to his commands. The people of Agrabah have been forced deep within the town to hide from the monsters, which is why you see no one about; it is too dangerous to be here."

"Oh," Sora hummed in understanding. "One thing though," he asked, and the Sultan's daughter looked intently to him, "What's a Sultan?"

Eyes widening in surprise, the woman placed a hand to her chest, "You don't know?"

"No." Sora said, shaking his head.

Seeing the woman think of how to explain, she eventually answered, "He is the ruler of Agrabah, the Vizier is his advisor."

Nodding his head, understanding it now, Sora said, "So he's sort of like a King."

The Sultan's daughter nodded, "Yes."

"Ah," Crowtassha hummed, from beside Sora, "So you're like a Princess!"

Again the Sultan's daughter, now Princess nodded, "Yes."

Seeing Luke throw a questioning look the Princess's way, Sora remembered their original topic. "So what are you doing out here then?"

Frowning slightly, the Princess answered, "A kind man helped me escape from the Vizier's son. He was hiding with me a little while ago, but he left saying he had something to deal with." Deepening her frown, she raised her hand to her chest again, "I hope he's alright, Aladdin is a good man."

A strangely lilting chuckle sounded out from above them. A gasp erupted from the Princess's throat as she recognised the voice, and they all followed her gaze as it went skyward. Their eyes settled on a man, dressed in fineries of red and gold, with a handsome face. "Now this Aladdin," he breathed, "Where might I find such a street rat?"

The princess stared back defiantly at the man who Sora and the rest quickly surmised to be the Vizier's son she had spoken of. But she was stopped from hissing out the words of malice that were ready on her lips by a light touch on her right shoulder. Looking up to see the face of who had stopped her, she saw Crowtassha. Quietly but with an unquestionable firmness, Crowtassha pointed to the entrance of the alcove, "Go."

It was short, but its meaning was to be heeded. Wordlessly the Princess left, leaving Vizier's son to them.

Staring at her retreating form forlornly, the Vizier's son returned he sights to Sora, Crowtassha and Luke. "Did you really have to let her go? If you had given her to me this whole trouble could be resolved so easily."

Ignoring his complaints, Sora stood up straight and shot back at him strongly, "We'd never hand someone over to you who doesn't want to be."

Smiling charismatically at Sora's reply, the man shrugged, "Well then, have it your way. I must say you would have made better allies than enemies, but there's nothing I can do about that now." With a snap of his fingers he summoned a bunch of heartless, and by the time they descended upon them, he was gone.

Disposing of them quickly a short search was conducted to find the man, but he was gone. Leaving the alcove and walking back out to the main part of town they had previously inhabited. They wandered closer to the entrance of town, no longer having an idea of what to do, they inspecting the houses around them briefly. No one showed any signs of having people in them, so as the Princess had said the citizens must truly have been somewhere else in town.

The entrance in sight now, the sound of someone whispering to them attracted their attention. Looking in the direction the sound was coming from they were once again faced with the Princess's graceful form. Her eyes flicked to one side then another now more watchful than ever. Approaching them she said in a quiet voice, "I'm dearly sorry to ask this of you, but seeing as you could defeat those monsters of that man who no one else could, I was wondering if you could do me a favour." Pointing to the archway leading into town she said, "Aladdin, the man who helped me escape the Vizier's son, he headed out there saying he had something to do, but he hasn't come back yet and I'm worried. I was hoping you could search for him for me. I would never last out there and I have no one else to turn to. Would you please do this for me" She clasped her hands to her chest to empathise her plea.

Turning to Luke and Crowtassha, Sora checked what their reactions to her words were. Crow if anything just looked like she was dreading stepping back out into the sun, but had no obvious objections. Luke signed something to him, but all of which he picked up was, _'…have no choice…'_

Though that gave him enough to turn back to the Princess and nod his head and agree to her request, "Yeah we'll find him for you. Just, do you have an idea where he went?"

The princess nodded. The movement made some strands of her hair fall over her shoulders, so she pushed the strands back behind her ear and pointed to the town's entrance again, "Out in the distance you can see something sticking up out of the ground, he headed that way. Hopefully if you do the same you'll find him."

"We'll find him for you for sure." Sora reassured her.

"Yeah." Crowtassha added on.

Luke nodded his head to state the same.

The Princess smiled a little, somewhat cheered by their certainty, "I hope your right."

"Of course we're right." Crowtassha exclaimed, "But make sure you stay safe while we're gone okay. She tacked on with some concern.

The Princess nodded her head to show she got it, "I'll be alright, just go find Aladdin." Without a word she slipped off into the shadows to hide.

Watching her go, Sora turned to the exit, "Let's go then."

Crowtassha sighed loudly at her obvious reluctance to step back out into the blazing heat but made no verbal complaint as they began their search.

Ten minutes in and the land feature that the Princess had pointed out to lead them towards Aladdin could be made out clearly. It was a rock formation that curved in a semi-circle around a certain location in the desert. Once they reach it they saw that the land within its perimeter then began to slope down til the opposite side of the rock formation, where there lay what seemed in be a pool of quick sand, and in it confining depths was a man fighting not to sink.

Realising the danger the man was in the three of them rushed to his aid, but before they got to him a herd of Heartless materialised in their path.

Swearing under her breath, Crowtassha mumbled with a misplaced happy tone to her voice, "Great, just what we needed." Drawing her dagger she made no further complaints and lunged into battle, Sora and Luke quickly following.

Killing the heartless as fast as they possibly could they were quickly to the man's side and pulling him out of the sand. Words of thanks still on his lips more Heartless appeared in an instant, far more than they could dream of getting away from with ease.

Readying their weapons none the less they prepared themselves for what seemed an unavoidable battle. That was until the nameless man pushed in front of them, and pulled a weirdly shaped object from where he had stashed it on his person and rubbed it in desperation.

"Genie!" He yelled, "Get rid of these guys!"

Much to their surprise, from the strange object came of huge puff of smoke and from it an even huger apparition that with a click of its fingers made all of the heartless disappear. Settling down the apparition crossed its arms and hovered by the man. Interestingly a wisp of it was still connected to the object it had burst from.

Blowing a sigh of relief, the man extended is hand out in greeting, only Crowtassha beat him to speaking first, screaming.

"What the hell was that?!"

Flinching from her loud reaction, the man obliged to explain to them, while Sora and Luke still hadn't managed to recover from their shock. Holding up the object in his hands he said, "I've been out here exploring this cave that's here, it's where I found this lamp. And him," he said pointing up to the giant apparition, "The Genie of the Lamp."

The Genie nodded at hearing his name.

Staring up at him Crowtassha asked, "So you grant wishes then?"

"Yes." The Genie answered, "But to each person I only give three. This man here has already used his first wish, so now he only has two. Personally I would have recommended something a little more flashy like becoming a rich prince, most do." He smiled faintly as he said this, showing a side of mirth most wouldn't have thought was there.

"Huh," The man hummed, thinking it over, "Well maybe I'll do that next time, but when we get back to Agrabah."

"A prince," Sora cut in, "Why a prince?"

"Ah." The man scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Well you see, back in Agrabah there's this girl, but well, she's a Princess."

Snapping to attention at the mention of a Princess, Crowtassha pushed Sora to the side so she stood in front of the man, "You're not Aladdin are you?"

Staring at her strangely the man replied, "Yeah, how'd you know?"

"The princess sent us to look for you, she's in trouble."

Jumping in surprise, Aladdin took action straight away, "Then what are we doing here. Let's get going we have to help her."

Agreeing wholeheartedly, the three of them followed him and the still summoned Genie as they made their way across the desert back to Agrabah and the Princess's aid.

Along the way they stuck up a conversation. Aladdin turned out to be a very nice man, in no way exaggerated by the Princess at all. He smiled at them, asking, "So what are all your names then?"

Reflecting his smile back at him Sora outstretched his hand in greeting, "I'm Sora." Aladdin took his hand and shook it. Looking up to Crowtassha she replied enthusiastically "I'm Crowtassha, the guy behind us is Luke, he's a mute so you weren't going to get that from him any time soon."

"That so." Aladdin responded, "How come?"

Crowtassha shrugged nonchalantly, "Who knows, he just doesn't talk."

Mulling that over, Sora took the chance to examine the Genie. Watching him he said to him, "So you're the Genie of the lamp hey, what's it like?"

"There's nothing like it in the world, there's nothing I cannot do, I am all powerful." Giving an odd sort of frown he added, "Though I have to say the small living space is a rather big downer. I'm lucky to get out every century or two."

"Really?" Aladdin piped up, hearing Sora and the Genie's conversation, "Well then how about with my last wish I wish you free?"

Blinking in surprise, having obviously never having heard such words from someone before the Genie expressed his great surprise, "You'd do that for me?" From the sound of his voice it seemed like he couldn't believe it.

"Sure." Aladdin replied without hesitation, "I mean you've helped me right, what kind of person would I be if I didn't repay the favour. After we help the Princess I'll wish you free."

Letting a great smile overtake his face, the Genie did a twirl of delight, "Well that would be amazing; no one else has ever offered me such a kind favour before. If all it takes to have my freedom is to help this Princess of yours then I'll do so with fervour. You are a kind man, I'd be happy to call you my friend."

"Friends we are then." Aladdin replied with a kind hearted smile.

"Friends indeed." The Genie added.

Behind them Sora definitely could see that the Princess hadn't exaggerated about Aladdin, but he just hoped for the sake of both him and the Genie that she'd be safe when they got back.

**…:…**

She wasn't.

They wandered through town with the sole purpose of finding her but their search turned up no results. Knowing that she wouldn't have made finding her impossible for them, they were alerted to something being off. Surely she would have stayed somewhere close to the entrance if she was concerned about them returning with Aladdin. But she was nowhere to be found.

They looked high and low for her, but she was nowhere. They even had quick look over of Aladdin's place but that still yielded no results. Eventually their search forced them to go further into the city, where they found themselves, on a high shelf, overlooking the gates to the Sultan's palace.

Where, eliciting a yell of surprise off Aladdin, stood the Vizier's son holding the Princess in his vice like grip jostling her forward to the palace. Obviously they were just too late to stop him getting her.

Jumping from their high perch without a moment's hesitation, the four of them ran to the two figures. Halting a couple metres away Aladdin yelled, "Princess!"

Turning around at the sound of his voice the Princess breathed in return with excitement on her tongue, "Aladdin."

Sighing rudely to break up the moment the Vizier's son pulled on the Princess's hand to remind them all of who was in control of this situation. Throwing them all a self-conceited look he said to all of them, "Aren't you all aiming a little high, isn't _'Heroically saving the Princess' _just a little bit too big for your plates? Why don't you and your street rat friend here just go away and crawl up into some hole and leave me be?"

Laughing at his egotistical words, Crowtassha shot back as confident as ever, "Hah, say what you want, but we came here to save a Princess and that's exactly what we're going to do."

Smiling back at the Vizier's son intensely with their intentions written on her face, Crowtassha locked eyes with him, praying he didn't notice Aladdin's slight change in movement. The moment the vizier's son's eyes weren't on him he had lifted the lamp to his hands. He rubbed it and whispered only loud enough for Sora, her and Luke to hear, "Genie, help the Princess."

But Crowtassha's efforts at diversion were useless because somehow Aladdin's actions were noticed anyway. Smiling almost unnoticeably, the Vizier's son lifted a hand up as the Genie appeared behind him and picked the Princess up, "I'm sorry street rat, but this wish is denied, so sorry." Before Aladdin had the chance to react one of the Shadow Heartless appeared from behind the group and tore the lamp from his grasp, and carried it all the way over to the gates, where he dropped it into the hands of the Vizier's son and disappeared.

Likewise, so did the Genie, uttering the last words, "I'm sorry Aladdin." The Princess fell from his grasp as he dissipated and was dropped into one of the many pots that decorated the area.

Laughing maniacally to himself the Vizier's son examined the lamp with vigour, "So this is the Genie's lamp. How great it is to possess it now."

Angered by both his treatment of the Princess and his mindless objectifying of Genie's lamp, Aladdin yelled at him, "Give them back!"

Sighing again, the Vizier's son shook his head tediously, "I think not." He mumbled. Raising his voice he added, "But I will give you something else, and this is to Keyboy in particular." Clicking his fingers all the jars around them rose to life, distorted horridly into Heartless form. They formed into a giant centipede, headed and tailed by black balls of being with small antenna and beady yellow eyes.

Lastly the Vizier's son said before taking his leave, "I know you came to this world to find the Keyhole boy, but I'll see to it you'll never find it."

Then he was gone, and the battle began.

Summoning his Keyblade Sora struck a mighty blow to one of the pots as it passed him. It shattered with surprising ease and the darkness that warped its form evaporated into the air and disappeared. Relieved to see that the pots no matter how many there were, were only small fries, he thought for a second that this might be an easy battle. Seeing as the only hard opponents seemed to be the head and tail of the centipede monster. But following it into another area of the city he realised with something akin to horror, that the amount of pots that made up the heartless were not only restricted to the ones that were already within it. No, anywhere it stepped, all the pots near it would come to life as twisted heartless and joined their brethren.

All his woes were accurately depicted by Crowtassha's rather verbal reaction.

Her first thought was to screech. Then to mindlessly throw her dagger at one of the pots nearest to her screaming, "Come one, if there wasn't already enough godforsaken pots did you really have to makes it so that all the pots in this freaking city became it's body as well! That's it! When I see that Vizier bastard next I'm going to kill him! Yeah that's right, kill him!"

Skidding to stop and slipping under a blow given out by the monster's head Crowtassha retrieved her knife and jumped back into the fight with a vengeance. If it wasn't so scary a scene Sora would have envied her fighting Skills.

The battle continued for quite some time, as the more area the centipede covered the more pots it had to make its minions. The twin black beings heading and ending it were forever sending shots of magic their way and blocking all means of attack so that all hits only made for pain. It wasn't the hardest of fights in ways of attack, but it was long and never ending. Luke's was swamped by having to continuously heal his companions and Aladdin as they fought. He barely had the chance to attack due to all necessary healing.

On and on it went, hit after hit smashing down on the tail and head but it was still a long time until with a final blow, the head crumbed in defeat. It disappeared, and all the pots returned to normal.

They caught their breathe, but the Princess and the Vizier's son were truly gone. No amount of searching was going to find them.

Trying to figure out what to do next the four of them came together in a circle to hammer out a plan.

"What next?" Crowtassha ask, "cause I have no idea where to search for those two."

Scratching his head, Sora replied, "Beats me."

Going silent, thinking for a moment, the two of them turned to Aladdin who hadn't offered a word of advice. Looking at him now, they saw him to be staring hard at something in the desert.

"What are you looking at?" Sora asked him.

Staring a little while longer he turned to the three of them and without warning told them firmly, "We must go to the desert."

"Huh, how come?" Crowtassha responded

"I don't know how, but I know that man's gone there, back to the cave I found the lamp."

"And who's to say he is?" Crowtassha argued back, "We could be wasting our time."

"We're wasting our time standing here, trust me, I know he's there, I just do."

Staring at him a little uncertainly she gave a look to Sora and Luke, "What do you to think?"

Sora shared her uncertainty, but Luke showed no sign of it at all, in fact he signed to her while she was turned his way.

'_Trust him, they're there.'_

Raising her eyebrows at him, she turned back to Aladdin. She might find this guy's assumption a little farfetched, but Luke intuition was faultless.

"Ok," she replied, giving up the argument, "We'll go to the desert."

Looking relieved Aladdin turned on his heel, "Good because the sooner we get to them to sooner we can help Genie and the Princess."

Following him to the exit of the town, Sora whispered to Crowtassha, "What convinced you to trust him?"

"Luke and his faultless intuition Sora. Trust me it's creepy how accurate that guy can get, and if he says Aladdin's right then you better bet Aladdin's right."

Nodding, he didn't raise anymore complaint as they made their way to the desert.

**…:…**

Once there it quickly became obvious that Aladdin had been right.

They began down the slope that led up to the entrance to the cave the lamp came from, but once they got to that entrance, that the Vizier's son had been here was made obvious. Where the entrance was, something extravagant began to happen, and dark mists began to stir. They swirled and swirled until gradually they formed themselves into a solid form of a ferocious feline's head. It roared and stook the entire landscape. Heartless were summoned by its call and all shot forward in attack. Its eyes glowed bright purple and emanated evil. A fight had begun.

Summoning the Keyblade Sora batted off the heartless who were attacking them and dealt them all fatal hits. They all fell and dissipated. Turning to the main target of the fight, Sora called to Luke and Crowtassha, the latter of which seemed just about to snap, "Crow, Luke, I'm going to go for the head can you take care of the heartless?"

Luke gave a nod and set to work on the ever gathering herd of Heartless and Crowtassha yelled back in a voice filled with insanity, "Do what you want; we'll deal with these guys for ya!"

Racing up to the head and jumping onto its side he seemed to gain some footing, so he began slashing again and again at its eyes, which were its only visible week point. Every now and again it started to shoot blasts out of them, but these were easily deflected by his Keyblade. Though he didn't always manage to on time and looking over at his friends, he saw this held true for them as well.

Every now and then the head would shake viciously and Sora was thrown of it onto the ground. Here he was placed right again into the Heartless herd, where he would have to fight his way back to damage the head once more. As the battle was drawn out this got harder and harder to do, as the head did its best to stop Sora damaging it. But every time he was thrown off Sora got back on and continued his attack. Luke also helped with his magic now and again which turned out to be a godsend.

Eventually the feline headed monster split the air with a screeching roar, and exploded outwards, fading silently into the air until it was no more. The battle done, all that was left was the entrance to the cave. With it now free and open to them, they walked inside.

**…:…**

Deep within the cavernous depths of the cave the Vizier's son stood, the Princess's senseless form by his feet. In front of him floated the Genie, dejected and listless.

Smiling greedily, the Vizier's son asked with all the arrogance in the world, "Now Genie my first wish, tell me where the Keyhole is."

Sighing sadly, Genie lifted his arm and flicked it in a direction to the side of him. Instantly a wall that had stood strong collapsed, revealing the very thing the Vizier's son wanted most. The Keyhole.

The man's smile widened, now all he had to do was call Zlo suka.

**…:…**

The insides of the cave were wondrous. They continued on forever and were constantly revealing new rooms, each and every one filled to the brim with treasure. How Aladdin had gone through all of it to find and take only one lamp was beyond them. That said of course that lamp in question could give a man more treasure than what was held in all the rooms of this cave put together, so the incentives were all too acknowledgeable.

For ages they walked through the cave, and the evidence of the Vizier's son's presence here was suffocating. Hundreds upon hundreds of heartless came after them. Seeping up out of the ground one after the other in an endless stream of materialised darkness.

It was tedious and exhausting work just going from room to room, but it had to be done. The Princess was in the hands of the Vizier's son, a man who by himself was a taint upon this world. He was someone who enlisted the heartless as his army. He spoke of the keyhole, specifically of how he was going to stop the Key bearer from getting to it. A job that must be done for the good of this world. So indeed, he was a man better off gone. To leave the Princess with him could lead to nothing but trouble.

Traveling deep into the bowels of the cave they came into passageways of stone corridors where rivers of water flowed through silently. They followed along these corridors for a great time more until the faint sounds of people speaking drifted along to their ears. Following the sound to its source their found a grand set of stairs that led them to a room filled with treasure more dazzling then any that had come before it, and at the end of the room a long dark hallway. At the end of this hallway a bright room could be made out, and two figures conversing. Recognising one of them as the man they were looking for, they began walking.

**…:…**

Zlo suka stood in front of the Keyhole listening to the Vizier's son pathetic excuses for why he had let that Keyblade brat get so close to him and the Keyhole.

"What's it with this boy again?" She complained.

"He's more persistent than we expected. Why don't you explain the situation to that boy Riku? It might actually prove useful to-"

The sounds of loud footsteps from behind made him stop short. Twisting on his heel he gritted his teeth to see that it was in fact that Keyboy and the street rat.

Stepping into the middle of the room, Sora's gaze landed on the Vizier's son, as well as an unknown woman with long black hair and a matching dress that showed off a lot of her skin. Staring at her he uttered, "Who-"

"Zlo suka." Crowtassha told him, contempt flowing through her voice, "The witch."

Directing his eyes back down to the Vizier's son he saw that they were standing in front of what looked to be a door with a keyhole shape in it. Pausing for a moment he realised what it was. The keyhole.

He didn't verbalise it but sneaking a glance over at Crow and Luke they had obviously realised the same thing.

Without a word, Zlo suka turned her back on them and muttered to the Vizier's son as she disappeared in malicious voice, "Deal with it." Then before their very eyes she faded away.

Not bothering to wonder what had just happened, Aladdin stepped forward.

"Give back the Princess!" He yelled.

But the Vizier's son just laughed in his face. "Oh, I can't do that," He muttered, waving a finger at Aladdin, "No, no, not at all. You see she is a Princess, one of seven Princesses who hold the key to open the door."

Staring at him with confusion in her eyes Crowtassha murmured "Open… the door?" Creasing her face in thought she tried to think of where she had heard that before.

"Yes, The door." The Vizier's son drawled, insulting their dismal knowledge of it, "But alas you'll never live to see beyond it." Clicking his fingers he clapped at the Genie, "Genie my second wish- Crush them!"

Gasping when they realised what that wish was going to entail they all took a defensive step backwards. Waving his hands up in the air Aladdin pleaded, "Genie no!"

But the listless Genie did nothing else but frown and explain, "I'm sorry Aladdin, but the master of the lamp gives all the orders, and I cannot disobey them."

The Genie floated overhead, his arms crossed, so all of them scattered and pulled out their assortment of weapons. Quite expectedly, the Vizier's son as it turned out wasn't going to play this one fairly. When all of their attentions were diverted, he took a rod out of his luxurious garbs; from this rod he expelled a great spell of fire at them all. It was only a last second counterattack from Luke that saved them all from getting hit.

Seeing the rod Crowtassha expelled an exaggerated offended gasp, "That bastards using Heiki Mythacite. Really pulling out all the stops to make this an unfair battle isn't he, like we didn't already need a Genie trying to crash us, now we have really powerful magic to deal with, great!" Bringing up her shield to deflect a shot of magic she stuck her tongue out at the man and dodged to the side to avoid the Genie crushing down on her.

The battle from then on played out with two different states of offence and defence. The state of offence was laying down attacks on the Vizier's son and dodging his magic, which Luke was good to deflect half the time with his own attacks. You had to admit, the man wasn't too good a magician, it seemed that he was using the Heiki Mythacite to make up for what he was lacking in talent. Made Sora glad to have Luke on their side.

The defensive state was the continuous dodging of Genie's crush downs, but luckily for them he warned them of his presence before he got close so he wasn't too hard to avoid. Once a friend always a friend Sora guessed.

The battle played on for a while in that manner, the Vizier's son floating to one location to another, making himself all the more harder to hit and constantly casting his magic. The Genie was no bother; it was an all-round easy battle. So it wasn't long before the Vizier's son collapsed in pain, defeated.

The only thing, he wasn't going to let it end there.

Breathing in harshly, he pulled the lamp from within his robes and lifted it into the air, "Genie," he gasped, struggling to his feet, "My last wish, make me so powerful that I can crush all who dare to defy me!"

As the last words of his wish trailed off Genie's face twisted into an expression of horror, but eternally ruled by the master of the lamp, he was forced to comply. He could hardly stand to watch as he clicked his fingers.

In the next instant the world shattered. The ground beneath them gave way under their feet and they fell metres to roughly carven rock platforms, the only solid land mass in the colossal volcanic chamber that they now found themselves. Getting to his feet Sora looked for the Vizier's son. His eyes finally locked on him floating above the magma, the lamp hovering above his head encased in a magical barrier.

Lowering his gaze to stare at his four opponents, the Vizier's son laughed and raised his hands. On cue, a giant spectre of himself appeared behind him. Though it was transparent, the demonic look alike still retained the abilities like that of a solid being. When it clawed at the walls, they fell away and crumbled under its mighty hands.

Gaping at the massive task ahead of them, Sora whispered to the three beside him, "So how do we defeat that?"

"We get the lamp?" Crow ventured, unsure of herself.

"But how, it's in a barrier?"

"Then we break the barrier, that's all there is to it." Crow answered him, the confidence back in her voice.

"Then what?" Sora continued.

"We seal him in it." Aladdin stepped forward. "He can't get out that way."

Looking over at him, Sora asked, "You think we can do that?"

"Well if I wish Genie free it's not like he's going to need it anyway." He answered with a smile.

Smiling themselves, Sora and Crowtassha pulled out their weapons

From where he floated the Vizier's son stopped with his fascination of his new gained powers. Directing his eyes back to them he asked, "Are we quite down with preparing for your doom?"

"It won't be our doom!" Sora yelled back at him defiantly, readying the Keyblade.

The Vizier's son chuckled, "That so? Think what you want, this will be your own Blood bath." He hissed menacingly, raising his hands so that his demonic self behind him followed, and tore at the rocks overhead and chucked them down at his opponents.

Dodging to the side of the projectiles, the four of them enacted their discussed plan. Dodging and weaving past all of the damaging objects thrown their way, they headed for the hovering lamp protected by the barrier. Smashing it, the barrier held strong, but not without giving a little every hit it took. This boosted Sora's confidence, like this their plan would work.

Jumping to the side as the Demonic illusion behind their enemy threw a gigantic boulder at him that it had drawn up of the magma soaked earth; Sora twirled around and turned his Keyblade back on the barrier protecting the lamp. It threw sparks in his face at every blow but he kept on.

Every hit brought them closer to winning this battle. It played out in a continuously circle of dodge and attack, strikingly similar to their last battle. Though this time of course, the dodging aspect was a lot more devastating if you failed. He saw Crowtassha go down to the side of him after having a flaming bouldering scrap her side. She was flung in the other direction, her right side covered with severe cuts. It was only Luke's quick action to heal her that had her up and fighting once again.

Again and again they bashed at the Lamp's barrier until finally with an almighty blast it dissipated. Landing in Sora's hands he held the lamp up to the Vizier's son. Seeing what Sora had in his hands the man in question eyes widened in fright, not knowing what the boy's intentions were.

Locking his eyes with the Vizier's son Sora yelled, "I wish to seal you in the lamp!"

The effects were instantaneous. The demonic illusion behind him began to swirl and twist about, and quite suddenly both it and him were sucked up into the lamp like a vacuum.

**…:…**

The princess, now conscious, sat leaning over the edge of the collapsed floor watching the scene happening in the chamber below. She breathed a sigh of relief when the man who had caused her so much grief was vanquished.

That was when she heard the sound of footsteps. But that was strange she thought, for there shouldn't be anyone else here, she would have seen them come in. So in curiosity, she turned around.

**…:…**

She was no longer there when Sora and the others eventually managed to climb back up into the main chamber. Aladdin's first reaction was to panic, he looked for her and called her name but she wasn't anywhere to be seen. When the Princess didn't show up, Sora took on other priorities. Approaching the Keyhole he lifted the Keyblade to seal it. A burst of light erupted from the blades tip and entered the Keyhole, where it then lit up before dissipating and returning to being a normal wall.

But as soon as he'd done that the whole cave began to shake. Knowing their urgency, him, Crow and Luke instantly tried to rush out of the chamber, but Aladdin refused to move on account of the missing Princess. The only thing that made him budge was Crowtassha yelling at him, "She isn't here!" and pulling him away.

Only moments after they had escaped the cave, the entrance sealed itself.

**…:…**

Back at Aladdin's place Sora and the others as well as Genie gathered around the distraught Aladdin.

The genie stood by him offering, "You know my friend, you still have one wish, you could wish for me to find her, I could do it easily, she'd be here before you even knew she was gone. "

Aladdin stared hard at that the ground for a moment as if contemplating this, but when a small smile appeared on his face, he looked up to Genie he said "Genie, with my last wish I wish for your freedom." Without a hint of hesitation.

Ceasing his movements, Genie's face lit up in amazement, "Aladdin." He managed to breathe in astonishment as his lower half was uncased in swirls. As they dispersed Genie stopped floating and dropped to the floor, supported by two new legs. Looking back to Aladdin he opened his mouth to offer any words of gratitude he could think of, but the words wouldn't come out he was so wrapped up by his amazement of what had just taken place.

"A deal's a deal." Aladdin told him with a smile, "Now you can go anywhere you want. You don't have to answer to anyone anymore; you're your own master." Pausing, he tacked on hopefully, "But I'd be extremely grateful if you could go with Sora to try and find the Princess."

Genie rubbed his chin in thought, turning to the side slightly as they eagerly awaiting his answer. He hummed to himself and murmured, "You know Aladdin I'm done taking orders from people last I checked."

Letting out a breath he'd been holding Aladdin slumped down in defeat.

He didn't notice the smile that slipped onto the Genie lips, "But," He said, making Aladdin snap his head back up hopefully, "A favour, now that's entirely different."

Beaming vividly Aladdin almost couldn't believe it, "You mean it, you'll do it for me?"

"Of course," Genie nodded, "What are friends for?"

Almost beyond containing his smiles, Aladdin snuck a grateful glance over at Sora and the others before looking back to Genie. The person in question shared the smile and placed his hand on Aladdin shoulder.

"Just leave it to me."

**…:…**

In another place, a much more different situation was happening.

In a dark room a man with a body twisted by chaos stood tapping his fingers on the stone table that took up the middle of the room. Contrary to his appearance and raspy voice, the words he chose to speak were in no way threatening or dark. Instead he spoke them in a complaining tone.

"That accursed man with all his finery, he might have had them if a certain someone had stuck around to help."

"I did my part; you have the Princess don't you." A voice replied, void of emotion from behind him. The chaos burned man turned his head in direction of the voice and he eyes locked on Riku. His face creased with annoyance at his reply.

"That man was beyond help." Zlo suka bit back at both of them from where she was leaning back against the table, "He let his heart be twisted by the darkness, and so became ruled by anger. Leaving him to deal with that Keyboy and protect the Keyhole was a mistake from the start."

Giving the man a hard look she told him, "One should be careful of cultivating such an ember into a flame."

Backing off the chaos twisting man put his arms off in defence, "Hey, hey no pointing fingers at me, I'm as cool as they come."

Sticking his finger in the air as he remembered something he turned to Riku, his annoyance at his earlier remark gone, "Just remembered kid, we got something special for ya."

Turning his eyes on Zlo suka, Riku asked, "What."

"We had a deal didn't we? You keep your end of it and we'll give you what you want." Zlo suka drawled, waving one of hands over the table. As she did so a hologram of an unconscious Kairi appeared over the stone surface.

Eyes widening, Riku murmured, "Kairi."

Letting herself smirk, Zlo suka waved him off, "Go to her, your vessel is waiting."

Hearing footsteps coming from the end of the room, both Riku and Zlo suka looked up to see a man in rough pirates attire stride onto stage. Playing with the gleaming metal of the hook that served in place of his hand, he forewarned Riku, "Keep in mind kid, this ain't no pleasure cruise, so don't go expecting a pleasant voyage."

Without taking his eyes away from the pirate Riku murmured to Zlo suka, "Doing all these things for me, what's the catch?"

"Catch?" Zlo suka uttered, slapping a hand to her bust as if offended, "Why you're like a son to me, why would there ever be a catch?"

Riku looked her way for a second and gave her an unconvinced stare," Why do I doubt that?" He murmured and began walking off.

Zlo suka's voice followed in his wake, "Believe what you will, but remember boy, I kept my end of the bargain."

Riku left the room, and Zlo suka was left alone in the dark room with the Chaos twisted man. They stood opposite each other across the stone table, neither of them uttering a word.

**...:…**

In a white realm of nothingness that stretched into the farthest distance a voice came to life in the emptiness. This girl's voice asked "Why don't you fight?"

In return a boy's voice answered her from a place unseen "To fight would mean my death."

The conversation lapsed into nothing for a time, but soon the girl's voice sounded again. Filled with a conviction stronger than steel, "You know I'd never let that happen."

Her reply came back faster than her first one and it resounded though the empty realm with a finality that couldn't be shaken

"It is out of your control."

* * *

><p>Hope you enjoyed the chapter.<p>

If you don't get the last paragraph there I must warn you you're not really meant to. Of course it's not meant to be completely confusing but I couldn't really fix it up any because my beta said it made perfect sense to her. Though that counts for nothing because she's my sister and knows the way my mind works. So if it's too confusing your free to leave me a review about it, but I can only explain so much this far into the story.

Please review, I'll love you for it.

~Claire Kriess.


	9. A dance with demons

_Hello everyone and welcome to the ninth chapter of DBF._

_This story hasn't been updated in thirteen months, and I feel sooooo horrible about it. I mean I can reason with the 'why' of it really well. Like I had to find the original Pinocchio book and had heaps of trouble with that, and school assignments, school assignment, school assignment. But **thirteen months** is inexcusable, never let me do it again. PM me if think I'm not updating enough, I'll try harder._

_As a side note this chapter is not Pinocchio, it's the coliseum. I'm double updating and next chapter will be Pinocchio. I should have that chapter out by Christmas. Then it can be a Christmas present for you guys. I hope it makes up for the giant update gap a little._

_Anyway, I tried real hard with this chapter, cause you, thirteen months is a long time and if I just something bad I'd feel even more horrible about not updating. But I hope you all enjoy it._

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom hearts, Square Enix does.**

* * *

><p><em><strong>A dance with demons<strong>_

The ship sailed soundlessly through the realm of stars. Crowtassha sat by in the corner running through sign language signs with Sora. He was improving, but he was far from her efficiency. Not that she expected that of him, she'd been around Luke and his use of sign language for years. For Sora the time was much shorter. Sitting by they left the piloting up to Luke.

Time passed by quietly, punctured occasionally by the soft murmuring of Sora and Crowtassha. Sometime more passed and the ship drew to the halt. Rocked slightly by the force of it Crowtassha got up to see why Luke had stopped.

Practically crawling onto to him over the chair she peered past him to what was visible through the screen. There was a world portal. She purged her lips, then turned to Luke, "You sure we haven't been to this before?"

He gave her a look that signed, _'How can you tell that?'_

"All the swirly colours, I've seen one like this before." She said waving her hand in the direction of the portal. "Ah!" She exclaimed suddenly, "it's that fighting place, you know that coliseum with that hottish topless guy who was going on about an upcoming tournament."

Ignoring her 'hottish guy' comment as best he could, Sora came up from behind and asked, "How can you tell it's that place?"

"Photographic memory, never forget a portal." Crowtassha boasted before jumping up and down and yelling, "come on let's go to it. I want to see if I can convince that hottish topless guy to let us enter that tournament, it should have started now."

Luke meanwhile had been counting something on his fingers, which Sora could only presume was the number of worlds they'd been to so far. He suppressed a laugh, remembering five worlds wasn't really a reason for Crow to boast.

Noticing his lack of attention Crowtassha slammed her hands down on the dashboard, "Oi, listen you."

Jumping at the loud bang Luke looked up to Crowtassha. Sighing she repeated, "I said I want to go down and see if we can enter that tournament."

He gave her a look and signed,_ 'Are you sure we have time?'_

She frowned at him, "Oh don't be like that, come on we need a break don't we? I think it would be fun." Turning excitedly to Sora she enlisted his help.

"Don't you agree Sora?"

He nodded, "Sure, I think we deserve a break after fighting an all-powerful man using genie magic."

"Not to mention all be heartless we took out to get to him." Crowtassha added.

Luke didn't look convinced, in fact in a last ditch plea he signed to Sora,_ 'Don't you join in too.'_

"Why not?" he questioned with a smile, "I agree with Crow, it could be fun."

Slumping forward, Luke waved them off conceding at last.

Giving a winning cheer Crowtassha high fived Sora. "Ha ha Sora, we win over Mr grumpy peridot."

Without a word Luke did as they asked and drove the ship into the waiting arms of the portal.

…**:…**

Their welcome to the coliseum on the other hand wasn't so hospitable.

The earlier referenced 'hottish topless man' mentioned by Crowtassha didn't respond to their questions about the 'Games' he'd mentioned last they met him overly positively.

The man of peculiar appearance, clawed feet, lionish tail, random patches of sandy fur and in human golden slitted eyes, seemed unwilling to let them participate. He declared the trails he'd put them through weren't enough to merit entrance to the tournament. A fact he'd stated last time much to their annoyance. He waved them off.

Sora stayed trying to convince him. Luke stood by his side, the assumed knowledge that this man didn't know sign language completely silencing him. His annoyed gaze the only means of communication to back up Sora's arguments.

Crowtassha sighed loudly in her irritation and left the room through the door behind them. Luke threw her a questioning look as she ducked out of view, but she returned it with one of nonchalance.

Striding down the steps Crowtassha stopped and complained, "Haaaa, stupid old man, why can't he just let us participate. What's the problem?" Pouting she crossed her arms grumpily.

"Having some trouble I see?" a smooth voice said from behind her.

Jumping Crowtassha twisted around awkwardly on her feet, almost tripping over in the process. Straightening up her eyes fell upon a twisted looking man. He was lazing by the steps, so close to where she had been a moment ago Crowtassha couldn't figure how she hadn't seen him as she passed. She grew suspicious.

"What's it to you?"

"Oh nothing," the man shrugged, flicking his wrist to pull something from his sleeve, "Maybe I'm feeling generous." He threw whatever he held at Crowtassha.

She caught it deftly and brought it to her face. He'd thrown her three tournament entrance tickets. She eyed him distrustfully. "And your given me these why?"

"Oh I don't know," the man mused, raising up, "Maybe I'm tired of all the fighters that old coot enlists. Perhaps I want some excitement."

Crowtassha pursed her lips and looked to the tickets in her hand, she returned her gaze to the steps to say something further when she saw the man was gone.

She blinked in confusion. She looked around but he was truly nowhere to be found. Eyeing the tickets with a similar measure of distrust which she gave the twisted man, she tapped her fingers against them. She was unsure whether or not to take him up on this offer. Flicking her eyes from the paper slips in question to the closed door or the coliseum Crowtassha decided.

She gripped onto the tickets. What was the worst that could happen? It's not like you could specifically curse tickets could you?

So she walked back into the building.

Sora was still arguing his point futilely. Luke it seems had gotten bored of the conversation and was leaning up against the wall.

Crowtassha approached the two arguing parties.

"Oi, you, tail man!"

He turned his gaze to Crowtassha in obvious irritation.

She suppressed a laugh at his expression. She flipped up the three entry tickets for all to see. "Would these be enough to end this argument?"

The man looked noticeably shocked. "Where did you get those?" he asked.

"Oh from someone who felt like helping us out?" Crowtassha smirked.

The man regained his irritated expression, but by dictation of his own rules, entry tickets meant entry to the games. So he was forced to concede. "Very well, if you have tickets there is nothing I can say against you entering. But don't expect to get far."

"Oh we'll see about that." Crowtassha laughed. Smiling she handed the man the tickets.

They worked like a charm.

…**:…**

Sora gripped the key blade. The man had let them into the preliminaries. If they won here they could move forward in the tournament. He smiled, this would be a fun change from fighting heartless day in and day out.

Crowtassha beside him appeared to hold a similar sentiment. Luke didn't let much past, but the slightest bit of amusement had slipped onto his face. Sora took it that he agreed with them.

Their opponents wafted out onto the stage. Sora blinked, sure it was nice not to be fighting heartless, but he was pretty sure that those people in front of him were demons.

Tilting his head he whispered to Crowtassha, "Crow, I'm seeing that correctly right."

The woman appeared bemused quite the same. "Yeah, I think you are." She allowed a quick glance at the stands, "Seeing how no one in the audience is reacting to them I think they must be normal here." She shrugged, "Oh well, at least it's a change from heartless."

"A little." Sora tacked on.

Crowtassha snorted, "Yeah, a little change."

Jokes over, the tailed man who conducted the tournament instructed both parties to get ready. In three seconds more he called "begin!"

Sora jumped forward, slicing down with the Keybade the demon closet to him caught the blow and parried it with its bare claws. Stepping back to avoid the next hit it sent his way, Sora narrowly dodged the blow. Advancing he began hitting back at his opponent. Quite contrary to all the Heartlesses he had fought in the past the demon seemed much more knowledgeable in how to fight. Most Heartlesses only displayed sense of fight, battling until their numbers were zero. This demon was smart. Crowtassha was probably right in assuming that they were simply a natural inhabitant of this world.

Sora ducked under another blow before returning it full force. There were five demons in all. One Crow had dealt with swiftly, another three which were preoccupied with fighting the three of them one on one. The last was nipping at each separate fight like a snake.

Sora continued his fight. Dodging as a claw raked past his left eye, he was forced to jump over the lone demon without a fighting buddy. Stumbling slightly he blocked an oncoming attack from his other opponent. Seeing movement in the corner of his eye Sora bashed the handle end of the Keybade into the chin of the demon in front of him. He was knocked off his feet and smashed his head on the ground. Soundly knocking him out cold.

The movement Sora had seen had been an attack from the last demon. He twisted around too slowly to face this next opponent though, and didn't have enough time to bring his Keybade up to protect himself from the demon's three inch claws that were zoning in on his face.

Then _'boom!'_

Sora stumbled back surprised. The demon had burst into flames without warning. His mind failed to comprehend what had happened, since he himself always forgot the use of magic, then logic sunk in.

Searching the area his eyes settled on Luke holding a fire mythacite crystal, both his and Sora's demon decorated similarly with flames.

Blowing out a sigh of relief, Sora waved him thanks. "Thanks for the save."

Luke nodded, then signed which Sora vaguely caught as,_ 'Thought you could use it.'_

Sora smiled at what he guessed was a joke. A final smash of metal on claws signalled Crowtassha's beating of her opponent.

Smiling, she met the two of them in the middle of the arena. "First rounds ours." She exclaimed in excitement, smiling for the fun of it.

They were shooed off the battle stage for a while so that the other preliminary fights could take place. But soon they were back on with a new opponent to face.

This one threw Sora for a spin. It was a single woman. She was slim and dressed from head to toe in black. She had a strange look on her face which Sora couldn't put a name to. Most worrying of all though were the six inch claws which she had growing from her left hand. To Sora she was a puzzle, even Luke seemed unable to identify what was up with her. Only Crowtassha looked on with some sort of worried comprehension.

Once again the tailed man called for them to prepare, then in three, "Begin!"

The woman lunched forward with a look of pure insanity spread across her face, and before she had landed her attack something clicked in Crowtassha's head.

"Sora! Look out she's about to-"

And then, before she even touched the Keybade Sora held up in protection, the woman transformed into a black monster with humongous twelve inch claws sprouting from each hand.

Sora balked, "What the-?"

"I'll explain later!" Crowtassha yelled, the only one in their small group not surprised by the woman's monstrous transformation, "but first we need to take her down!"

"Yeah." Sora agreed, finding himself being pushed back by the woman's great strength as he defended with the Keyblade when her blow hit. "But I might need a little help here."

"Sure thing!" Crowtassha yelled whamming the woman in the face with her shield. The woman flew left where she was then bombarded with shots of fire and water which Luke summoned like a madman.

This time, unlike the demons she acted with a wild fervour mindless of all about it bar those it could destroy. Destruction seemed its only purpose. She ducked in and out of their blows, paid no attention to when she was hit. She was burned, bashed and sliced, but she continued her assault, barely stopping for breath.

Siding up close to Sora after the battle was beginning to dull his senses, she tore a long gash down his arm with her claws. She was promptly smashed in the head by Crowtassha and the wound was healed by one of Luke's mythacite. Open to attack as she went sprawling from Crowtassha's hit Sora took his chance.

He took up the Keyblade and landed a mighty hit to the side of her head. She fell, finally rendered unconscious. Watching her as she lay there, the woman began changing back from beast to her slim human form.

Sora and Luke shared the same expression of wonder whilst Crowtassha barely looked on it twice.

Sora opened his mouth to question her as she began to walk off stage but she waved him off sensing the question coming. "I know, I know, you two are gonna want the explanation for this one. I'll give it to you once we reach the stands."

Three of them walked to the end of the arena and on to the dusty ground surrounding it. There they met up with the tailed man. He watched as they passed and brought them to a halt by saying, "Hmmm, you're not doing too badly, but you're not the best I've ever seen." He mused.

Crowtassha sighed at his response, almost as if to say, _'This guy's never going to except us as good isn't he?'_

Sora shared her opinion.

About to move off, the sound of approaching steps halted Sora. He looked up as a man unknown to him passed by. His hand was covered by a gauntlet and about his shoulders was a tattered red cloak. His hair was blonde and spiked. He held Sora's gaze as he walked by, but passed without a word.

In front of them the tailed man watch him passively. "He looks like a strong opponent, you should pray that you won't be facing him."

Crowtassha seemed to take offence to the words, but it wasn't until they got back to the stands that Sora realised why. He'd basically politely said you're going to lose and not make it far.

Sitting down in the stands, Sora turned to Crowtassha, "So, what was that woman before?"

Seeing he was talking about this Luke tuned in as well.

"Oh her," Crowtassha flicked her eyes up to Luke, "Well you've probably heard the term before you've just never seen one. It's Sora I feel sorry for here. That woman was an anti-form."

"A what?"

"An anti-form. People who have spent some part of their lives too close to the darkness. It leaves a lasting effect on them. If you imagine it as a line and put a mark in the middle, those on the first half of the line have a personality change, those on the further half transform into monsters. Like the woman you saw before. Of course on either side of the line the further you are down the line the worst you are. That woman looked like she'd been holding it back for a long time, so I don't think she was a bad case. If you were on the end of the line you'd transform with the slightest tick. It's quite terrifying actually."

"You've seen them before?" Sora asked.

"Once or twice, most of my knowledge comes from other people. But their easy enough to pick. The most notable part of their monster form is still a part of their human one. Just in a smaller size, like that woman's twelve inch claws which were only six before she transformed."

"Hmmm, how come it happens do you know?" Sora asked curious.

"Not a clue in the world." Crowtassha shrugged. "The even weirder thing about it is that it has no set pattern who it effects. Not everyone who has ever been associated with darkness becomes an anti-form. Stranger still is that the longer you spend with the darkness the less chance you have of becoming an anti-form. Of course there are still freak cases, but they're rare."

Staring off at the continuing competition Crowtassha made sure to add, "You shouldn't judge an anti-form though, because even though they have spent a part of their life in darkness, the fact that there here now, means that they tried to get out."

…**:…**

The remaining battles of the round passed by and the new round began. Fewer and fewer opponents were victorious, leaving a much smaller number of combatants. For victims of the tournament, some stayed on to watch the remaining fights, others sulked and trudged away from the arena leaving the tournament firmly behind them.

Soon, Sora, Crowtassha and Luke's next fight came.

Much like the first fight their opponents were black demons. Though amongst their ranks they counted a creature similar in look to the tailed man who was holding this tournament. His reddish colourations and fur were a matter of interest, but it was soon forgotten as the tailed man called for the fight to begin.

It ended much like the first. The three of them rose victorious without too much trouble. But the demons did make interesting opponents. The reddish one even complimented them on the good fight. Whoever he was he was a pretty good sport.

While waiting in the stands for the next fight, the tailed man admitted bashfully, "You three might be a little better than I've given you credit for. Lucius might even enjoy these fights."

"Lucius?" Sora perked up.

"The two of us are the guardians of this coliseum. But at the moment he is otherwise preoccupied." The tailed man replied. Dropping the conversation he soon walked off to properly survey the continuing fights.

Sora watched him go, wondering what type of person the guy he was talking about was like.

Their next fight arrived even sooner than their last one. The available combatants narrowed down to four groups. The final was a victory away.

The fight when they walked onto stage was to be against the first group of purely human fighters they'd versed thus far. Excluding the human woman who'd been as Crowtassha had called her, an anti-form.

Sora, Crowtassha and Luke readied themselves, as did their imminent opponents. This battle was harder than the previous, apart from the difficult ferocity of the anti-form, since these opponents seemed to have great idea of what they were doing. Unfortunately for them, it seemed Crowtassha had an even better one. She made sure to inform Sora and Luke of the best ways to get the upper hand on their opponents, in the quickest way possible. The fight was long and involved endurance over offence. But Luke was there to heal them when they were worn down, and Crowtassha was there to direct them both to the best solution. In the end, the victory rested on their shoulders.

The head of the group breathed out a sigh after an end was called to the fighting. She approached Sora holding her hand out for him to shake, "Good fight." She said.

Taking her hand and shaking it Sora replied, "You too."

The girl shook her head and almost laughed, "Seriously though, that friend of yours there knows her stuff, she saw through every one of our combos."

Crowtassha laughed, "Well, back where I come from I'm the head of Knights, I hold over ten solid years of fighting experiences over these two here. Gotta be good with a boast like that." She joked.

But the girl just stared at her strangely, "Knights?" She questioned with a queer look.

"Ah!" Crowtassha squeaked realising a touch too late that the logic of her world didn't necessarily pass into this one too, "Nothing to worry about, fighters, just fighters, yeah." She rushed out flustered, waving her hands about.

Sora laughed at her mistake, and Luke bit on his lip wearing a great big smile on his face at the hilarity. "Oi, shoosh, you too, it's not funny." But this only made it funnier to Luke, and even Sora couldn't stop himself from laughing some more.

Calming down Sora noticed that the woman's fellow fighters didn't seem as jovial as her. Their disgruntled faces said much about what was in their head.

"Um, I don't think your friends agree with you." He mentioned.

Glancing at them she hummed, "Ahhhh, yeah I think you might be right. Don't worry they're just nursing their bruised egos, it's alright."

She clapped her hands together as a wave, "Guess I'll be seeing ya again. Be nice to verse you again sometime if we ever come face to face once more." And with that she skipped back to her group. Vaguely Sora could hear her saying, "Everyone, come calm down."

Crowtassha laughed at the display of grumpy faces. "Ah, such a funny bunch of sore losers."

'_Reminds me of you when you lose.' _Luke signed when she was looking his way.

"Don't you start." She growled.

He didn't mention anything more but the smile remained on his face. Sora smothered a laugh.

They retreated to the stands as the last semi-final fight was to begin.

…**:…**

Two figures stood watching the end of Sora's fight. Concealed by the shadows of their alcove, a man with chaos twisted features smiled, "That kid, win the next fight and he's your opponent."

The man across from him opened his eyes and watched the boy in the distance still standing on the battle stage. "Our contract only says I have to kill Lucius."

The chaotic man twitched in irritation. He glared at the blonde standing against the wall. "I know I know," he reasoned, "but you know, these are only some games to have fun in you know. What's a casualty or two? Just adds to the fun I think."

"Hmph." The blonde man didn't respond, but instead hoisted himself off from the wall and began to walk to the arena. Whether or not he would do as asked by his benefactor was still up in the air.

Left alone, the chaos twisted man cracked his knuckles in pure, ferocity. He glared at the retreating back of the contracted man. "Annoying little snot. Dare defy what I ask." He calmed almost immediately. "But ahhh well, luckily for him suckers like him are hard to come by. He turned his back on the fighting. "And there's always a plan b."

…**:…**

The second semi-final fight had been delayed, so getting caught up in conversation amongst themselves, none of them had paid much attention to it. As such they didn't really know who their opponent was to be until they were standing in front of him.

With a little surprise, Sora saw that it was the blonde man who had passed him before. The tailed man must have been right to call him a strong looking opponent. As he stood before them now, his huge sword which he bared at them only contributed to his threatening aura. It didn't help that he alone was the only single fighter to make it all the way to the finals.

Still Sora couldn't quite put a name to the look in his eyes.

Behind them the tailed man called, "Ready? Fight!"

The man swung his sword to the side in preparation for a swing, and Sora jumped back just enough to escape the range of the swipe. Stepping back again Sora only just managed to get a firm stance as the man lurched forwards with a new attack. He swung his sword downward. Catching the blow with the Keyblade, the sheer weight almost caused Sora to lose his grip on it. The sheer necessity to use it to protect himself was what kept his sore fingers from dropping the weapon.

The man drew the sword away, readjusting it in his hands. He swung in again. This time Sora ducked under it and dodged backwards**. **Crowtassha jumped in a landed a hit to the man when he was mid blow. Throwing him off balance, she took another chance to land some hits when she could. Sora joined in her escapade. They were only given this opening for an accumulation of a couple seconds before he regained his footing and readied his blade again. They dodged back out of the danger range.

From his blind spot the man took a shot of fire to the back. Reacting he twisted on his toes to see Luke standing back in a safe spot firing another shot off at him. He caught the next one of the blade of his sword then turned back on his toes to block an oncoming blow from Sora and Crowtassha.

The fight continued on much the same. It was certainly the toughest they'd faced so far, the man was an experienced fighter with some good endurance. He grew harder the more hits they managed to deal him. He elongated his sword strokes to widen the damage range, and the failure to react to this in time caused Sora to be hurt many a time. To his luck Luke had early on taken on a healing position.

After a long, tiring fight the man fell to his knees. Defeated.

Sora was about to walk up to him to congratulate him on a good fight when a rumbling shook the arena. The stones beneath his feet shook and a loud inhuman roar signalled a worse fate to come.

A giant shadow creature climbed over the bounds of the arena and onto the battle stage. In a step it all but crushed Sora's opponent between its feet.

"Sora!" Crowtassha yelled, pulling him back from the beast. The crowd screamed in horror. Many demons who seemed to be much the same in composition apart from size were even scared by the appearance of this monster.

Watching its gigantic stature Sora murmured, "What the…?" The demonic beast had come out of nowhere.

People ran past them in fear scrambling for the only entrance not in the demon's path. Contrary to this flow of movement a single force rushed past them to the face of the monster.

A man had slammed the monster back with a mighty force. It stumbled but didn't fall over.

"Run!" The nameless man shouted.

For now they complied with his wish, and joined the other parties running for the entrance.

Once in the safety of the room beyond Sora asked the tailed man incredulously, "What was that?"

"A high demon." The man replied, "Lucius should be able to take care of it, but…" he hesitated, mumbling in a quieter tone, "It's been a long time since any one here has fought a demon of that size." He seemed unsure of his own declaration. His eyes flicked from the exit back out towards where the demon and Lucius as Sora now knew him to be called were in the midst of fighting, and the one in which people were still escaping through. The question of whether or not to stay and guard their safety played in his eyes.

Watching his painful indecision, Sora stepped forward, "We'll go back and help him."

The man jumped in surprise, and looked him in the eyes seriously, "You can't be serious. A high demon isn't anything like you versed in the tournament. It's on a whole other level."

"It's the least we can do, I can't leave here knowing I've left someone in danger." Sora argued.

"Yeah," Crowtassha jumped in, "We gotta help him."

Breathing out an exasperated sigh the man conceded, "Okay, but be careful, really careful."

Nodding to his warning, Sora rushed off back into the arena, Crowtassha and Luke following him.

Coming out into the stadium, the giant demon rose high above them, wreaking destruction on the arena where the tournament took place. In front of it stood a man holding it at bay, the blonde man from before slung over his shoulder. They presumed the man fighting was Lucius.

Seeing it in its full size clearly now without the distraction of fleeing audience members and what not Luke froze. He stared at the demon for all of two seconds before he reached into his pocket and pulled out Heiki mythacite, and summoned his weapon.

He signalled to Crowtassha he was good to go.

She threw him a disbelieving stare. Focusing on the demon who stood before them she pulled her dagger from its sheath and readied her shield. "Sora don't believe anything he says, he just means he's not taking a step near that thing. He's staying and healing. Leaving all the work to us the bastard."

"Ah," Sora hummed in understanding. Summoning the Keyblade he stood ready. "That doesn't affect that we have to help that guy, a demon that big has to be hard to deal with alone."

"Yeah" Crowtassha agreed.

Without a word the two rushed to alleviate Lucius in his fight. Reaching his side Sora told him, "Get that guy to safety, we'll deal with the demon."

Readjusting so that the man sat more firmly on his shoulder Lucius nodded, and ran back to the coliseum's entrance to get the man to safety.

Standing firm, Sora readied for the fight. The demon struck out with one of its sizeable clawed hands to brush Sora out of its path. Sora slipped under the blow and struck its hand with the Keyblade. Crowtassha began striking at the legs in and attempt to bring the colossal being to its knees. Blows to its head seemed like they'd serve much more lasting damage any way.

So the fight played out thus. It hands played the biggest danger factor for most of the battle. They were large and clawed so when they struck they dealt great damage. Both Sora and Crowtassha were cut up a number of times in failed attempts at dodging. It made them grateful that Luke had decided to stay back and heal. Even if he had done it selfishly.

They were able to deal out a large enough amount of damage to its right hand that midway through the battle the pain it felt to move it was a big enough deterrent not to attack them with it. This was only a small victory though as it took this chance to begin spitting fire balls.

"Serious!?" Fireballs!? Crowtassha yelled as the first one sailed past her head. She went on to mumble some obscenity about fireballs under her breath.

The addition of fire made the battle increasingly dangerous. Even Luke had to relocate to a safer place to ensure he didn't get hurt. Though even with his constant healing any hit from the fire was troublesome. The blows were so painful they were paralysing, and until Luke could see to them they were left virtually defenceless, leaving them perfectly open to other blows. Increasing Luke's work load along with the danger. This troublesome factor made Sora and Crowtassha stay pretty stiffly on their toes, but they were not perfect. They still slipped up occasionally.

They were more focussed now on breaking in its legs in hopes it'd fall. A good hit to the head might knock it out. And at its size that was about the best they could do.

The rest of the fight become one massive endurance run. It took many minutes before its legs began to weaken. When a fierce hit finally brought it down to one knee, Crowtassha boosted Sora up so he could get to its shoulders. Swinging the Keyblade back he swung it forward and smashed it into the side of the demons head. It fell stunned and another blow from Crowtassha's shield knocked it out for sure.

With the demon successfully defeated Sora gave into his exhaustion from the battle. He fell to the ground, sitting as he tried to get his breath back. In a similar state Crowtassha eyed Luke as he approached them from where he had been hiding from the monsters wrath.

He signed to Crowtassha, _'Good fight.'_

Crowtassha scowled, she could almost hear the sarcasm of his words. "Yeah one you didn't even participate in." She complained. She nudged Sora to back her up. "Hey, right?"

Sora looked up from catching his breath and looked at the two of them staring down at him. He paused for a moment, "Well he did help us."

"Oi, he wasn't the one getting shot at by fireballs now was he?" She complained even louder, slightly offended Sora didn't take her stand point.

Luke looked like he thought Crowtassha's grumpiness was funny, he signed,_ 'I felt them though, those fireballs were hot.'_

He looked specifically at Sora,_ 'Right.'_

Sora hadn't gotten the entire of the first sentence, but recognising fire and hot gave him the basic gist.

"I suppose." He responded.

"Suppose!" Crowtassha yelled, "Are you insane they were boiling!" Growing fed up she put up her hands in defeat. "That's it, you've both gone insane I'm leaving, that cynical tailed man is better company then you."

With that she walked off in a huff.

Watching her retreating figure Sora chuckled. "We should probably go and apologise to her for messing with her."

Luke nodded in agreement. He hesitated for a moment after that, and then after considerable thought he held out a hand to help Sora up. He avoided eye contact, the action seeming a little awkward. But Sora appreciated it, especially coming from Luke. He took it and got up off the ground. "Thanks."

Returning to the coliseum entrance they found Crowtassha, Lucius and the tailed man were the only ones inside.

Seeing Lucius, Sora asked, "That man from before-?"

"He already regained consciousness. He left through that door." Lucius mentioned pointing to the door out, "Though I don't know if he's still outside."

"Oh." Returning focus to Lucius, Sora clarified, "You've Lucius right?"

The man nodded, "Yes, your friend here has already introduced herself, and you are?"

"Sora. He's Luke." He told him pointing to the boy behind him.

"Well, then Sora I'm guessing my tailed friend beside me has something to tell you which he won't unless I make him." He gave a hard look to the man beside him. "And that is?" He probed.

The tailed man pulled a face before admitting to Sora, Luke and Crowtassha, "If you can defeat a demon like that I suppose I should let you enter the proper tournaments."

"Really," Sora sounded surprised, "That's great!"

"Finally lightened up a little." Crowtassha quipped.

The man hmphed, "Not at all, you people still aren't anywhere near as good as Lucius here. You pale before him. Now would you leave, after that interruption I have a lot of cleaning up to do of my poor coliseum."

This reaction made Sora and Crowtassha sigh, but Lucius just laughed it off. "Don't let him bother you, this is just how he is. He doesn't hate you. In fact I can't wait to see you in these tournaments again."

"Of course." Sora replied.

"Yeah." Crowtassha tacked on.

"Well I'll see you then." Lucius replied as he saw them out.

When he was sure they were gone the tailed man crept up and said in wonder. "You know, but I'm surprised people like them could take down a high demon. Those are tough creatures."

Laughing a little Lucius admitted, "Just between you and me but I'd worn it down quite a bit first."

The tailed man smirked, "I won't say a word."

…**:…**

Outside much to his surprise, Sora saw that the blonde man from before was still sitting on the steps furthest from him. So, crossing the large gap between them he approached him.

"Hey you-"

"Cloud." The man mumbled in response, looking up to Sora's inquisitive form with vibrant blue eyes.

"Oh, well I'm Sora. Are you alright?" Sora appeared worried.

"Yeah." He cut him off shortly. He remained silent for a time then said, 'Sorry about before."

"About what?"

"There is a man here named Chaos, we had a contract, and he asked me to take you down." Cloud explained quietly.

"Why'd you do it?" Sora asked.

"I'm looking for someone, Chaos promised to help." Here he paused once again, then continued, "I tried to exploit the power of darkness he held, but it backfired. I fell into darkness, and couldn't find the light." He paused.

"You'll find it." Sora spoke up "I'm searching too."

"For your light?" Cloud asked.

"For what's precious to me." He answered.

"Don't lose sight of it." With those parting words Cloud got and walked past them. Leaving them alone in front of the coliseum, all by themselves in the middle of the great dusty entranceway.

* * *

><p><em>Hope you liked the chapter.<em>

_I don't like how I wrote the last scene, but I couldn't fix it up for some reason. _

_I tried much harder with content differentiation compared to the game in this chapter than with the last one. Though one of the main reasons I had trouble with Agrabah was that I had trouble adopting the original story to a KH format. It's easier with the coliseum since I created my own story for it._

_Please review, I love you for it._


	10. In the midst of troubles

_Merry Christmas everyone. Finally managed to update something on Christmas. I hope you enjoy this present too especially since it's only the second chapter I've posted for this story in thirteen months. Still feel really bad for that. _

_There was only so much differentiation and length I could put into this chapter, cause you know, its entire plot is pretty much, 'Oh hey where's Pinocchio, oh he's over there getting eaten by a Heartless.' so it's on the short side, Especially for a DBF chapter since they usually get around 8k min. But I hope it's okay._

_Hope you have a great Christmas to anyone reading this on Christmas day._

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom hearts, Square Enix does.**

* * *

><p><em><strong>In the midst of troubles<strong>_

Floating across the endless stretch of space, Sora, Crowtassha and Luke's journey remained uninterrupted by the appearance of world portals. The talk inside the cock pit was uttered in quiet tones. Sora's proficiency in sign language was getting much better, so it was no longer the core of his and Crowtassha conversations. Though along the long ride she had many chances to run through the signs he knew to check they were properly memorised. Yet apart from that, speak had wandered into trivial matters to which Luke didn't even bother to listen.

He sat by piloting the ship, tapping his fingers on the wheel to quell the boredom building within him. His gaze drifted across the great expanse beyond the glass. The shards of mythacite floating in space lit up the gloom like bright fireworks. He'd always found them mesmerising if he was being honest, beautiful even. But he never told anyone this. He didn't like telling other people his personal thoughts.

Briefly he looked back at Crowtassha and Sora where they sat. They were still talking about nonsense. So he closed his ears again and refocused his attention on the space beyond the window in front of him. It continued uninterrupted for a while longer before a speck on the horizon caught his attention.

It was small at first, but he quickly noticed an abnormality in its shape. He tried to figure out what it was as it came closer. With a measure of surprise it came to him that whatever it was it was moving. Up and down in a similar pattern. He scrutinised it some more. Ships didn't moving that way, at least not any he knew of, so what was it? Watching it a time more its shape became clear. He jumped.

The sound gained Crowtassha's attention from her seat behind him. She got up to check on him and to find out why he had spooked. Leaning against the dashboard, she questioned him, "What's up?"

Giving her a strange look he slowly raised his arm and pointed to the large incoming creature visible past the glass.

Crowtassha looked in the direction he had pointed in, adjusting her eyes until the creature appeared clear she jumped.

"It's a fricking Shark!" she screamed.

"What?" Sora spoke up incredulously, jumping up and approaching the front of the cockpit. He balked at the large form of the animal zoning in closer to their ship.

In response to the imminent danger Crowtassha all but teleported back to her chair and sat down. Not wanting to get smashed into the screen any more times than she had. Then she ordered, "Get us away from here now dear Luke!"

He nodded in agreement. The shark was now in close proximity to the vessel. It was the largest of its kind he'd ever set eyes on in his life. Its teeth were pointed and plentiful, perfectly ready to eat their ship in one bite. He turned rapidly to the right. This action knocked Sora off his feet, who had neglected to take the smart course and sit back down like Crowtassha had. He soon relocated back to the safety of his seat.

Unfortunately, avoidance tactics and all, the shark now had them in its sights. It floated closer until it was right on top on them. Luke tried as he could, but getting away from the monstrous beast was soon realised to be impossible. He flinched as the monster opened up its jaws to eat up his poor ship in one single bite.

**…:…**

From darkness, a scene faded into existence.

Waves crashed against the sand. The small island was quiet, locked in its own clam realm. Two young boys maybe about five or six occupied the space, engaged in their own conversation. Walking lazily, they started on one side of the island and worked their way inwards.

"You sure you did just hear it this time?" The taller one spoke.

"What difference does it make? There's a huge monster in there I tell you." His younger friend squealed in excitement.

Approaching a pond to which water streamed from overhead, the taller boy questioned, "Alright, suppose there really is a monster, think we can beat it by ourselves Sora?"

Sora stopped in front of a small cave hidden in the roots of a tree and smiled whilst turning to Riku, "No problem, let's do it."

The two boys peered into the cave entrance. Sora dropped his voice a pitch, "Listen there, can you hear it growling?"

"Shhh," Riku placed a finger to his lips to tell him to stop talking, "quiet, we gotta be careful."

They entered the cave, explored, and in the end found nothing. The cave was completely empty.

"See that, it was just the wind making that noise." Riku announced to Sora.

Sora pulled a disappointed face and complained, "Aww man, I wish it was a monster."

Riku's eyes continued to scan the cave. After a while something seemed to catch his interest, "Hold on," he said to Sora, "what's that over there?"

On the far end of the cave, hidden in the shadows was a long wooden surface. Riku walked up to it and examined it. He knocked on it and looked at it up and down. He made a quizzical expression, "A window, or maybe a door. It won't open" he mused.

Finding the wooden surface void of answers he returned to Sora's side.

The younger boy grumbled "Geez, is that really all that's in here?"

"What do you expect, in a boring place like this?" Riku told him matter-of-factly.

The boys paused, Sora's expression downcast over the failure of their adventure, Riku's thoughtful.

Eventually he spoke up, "Hey Sora?"

"Hm.' the younger boy responded, lifting his head to look at Riku properly.

"When we're older, let's get off this island." He proposed excitedly, "We'll go on real, adventures, not this kid stuff."

"Sure," Sora agreed.

As he began to walk out of the cave with Riku beside him, Sora wondered, "but isn't there anything fun to do now?'

The scene began to fade, the last audible words "Hey you know the new girl at the mayor's house-" were evaporated with the memory.

**…:…**

Sora opened his eyes. That memory, that was from so long ago, he was probably only five. It'd been a day or so before he met Kairi, and a year until Riku stopped speaking and Kairi pulled away. Sora sat up and rubbed his eyes. Riku had gotten sick when he was seven, and after he recovered he didn't speak anymore. Sora didn't know why, even now. For Kairi pulling away, he could sort of reason with. Had she been entangled with this light and dark stuff even then, he couldn't blame her for not wanting to get the people near her involved. But for Riku, he couldn't even begin to make sense of his silence

Finishing rubbing his eyes, his vision cleared up and he realised where he was. He jumped with a start. He was in the belly of the shark. Beside him Crowtassha and Luke where in similar states of waking up. Luke was already aware of their strange surroundings. His face held an expression much like Sora's one of shock.

Crowtassha was a little slow on the uptake and took another couple seconds to rouse herself so that she saw the state of their surroundings with clear sight.

"What tha?!" She jumped. "Please don't tell me we're in its stomach." She whined.

Luke nodded rather matter-of-factly in response to her question.

Crowtassha squinted her eyes, and peered through the dim light at Luke "Luke in this light I can barely see you move."

Sora squinted as well, and looked around him, "Now that you mention it… it is really dark in here."

He could barely see two metres from him. The knowledge that they were in the sharks belly was more known from the feeling of it beneath them then from what they could see.

Luke too took to scanning what was visible. He reached into his pocket and grabbed a fire mythacite stone and lit a fire in his hand. The flame lit up the area for another two metres around, making for a visual of four metres across. Luke looked around some more, then seemed to click in to something. Quite suddenly he latched hold of Crowtassha. He signed to her hysterically, _'Where's the ship?'_

"Ah," Crowtassha sounded looking from Luke to Sora taken completely surprised by his sudden outburst. She looked around to see if she could locate what Luke could not. Her eyes didn't set on to any ship or whatnot, but as she clenched her hand without thinking it closed on around something. She rose whatever it was to her face. It looked like the type of crystal a world gave her when it didn't agree with the ship. The sort of thing that would send to the dimensional pocket wherever the ship was being kept so they could leave. She was confused. She checked her surroundings.

"Hey, this was a shark right?" She clarified.

"Yeah." Sora told her, confusion tinted his voice at the seemingly out of place question.

She lifted up her hand for both boys to see. "Just asking, cause it gave me the sort of thing a world does when it doesn't like the ship. See." She gestured for them to look.

Sora and Luke both stared at the object in Crowtassha's hand curiously.

"Why do you think it did that?" Sora asked, obviously not having a clue about it himself. Luke looked just about the same amount of confused.

Crowtassha lifted the stone to her face again and got up, watching over the insides of the shark she proposed, "Perhaps this isn't really a shark, but a fragment of a world. It would explain how it could survive in space without the assistance of mythacite."

Sora followed Crowtassha's gaze, not really fully comprehended what she was saying. "Should we explore it then?" he asked.

"The insides of a shark?!" She questioned.

"Might as well." Sora shrugged.

Crowtassha turned to Luke, "What do you think?"

Luke met her gaze and got up slowly, _'I think it's a great idea.'_

Crowtassha stared at him blankly. "Ok I know you're being an idiot." She shrugged, "But, we might as well."

"Let's go then." Sora piped up.

The three of them, under the careful guidance of the flame Luke held in his hand slowly made their way through the shark's stomach. When they were a fair way in they began hearing sounds of movement. It was very lively, and sounded like the purposely done moving of objects. So assumedly it was human. This curiosity made then go towards the source of the sound.

When they reached it they saw it was being made by someone up on a ledge. It surprised them to see that someone else was actually in here, but the want to know who it was outweighed the latter.

"Hey who's up there?" Sora called out.

There was sound of movement, then a small wooden puppet peered over the edge. It was dressed in shabby clothes of flowered paper and a bread hat. Across its shoulders it was lunging a piece of what appeared to be mythacite.

"Me." It said. The voice seemed to be that of a boy so that was what they guessed its gender to be.

The puppet moved off without a word and the left the three of them standing where they had seen him appear.

There was a moment's thoughtful pause.

"That was a…" Sora began.

"Puppet…" Crowtassha added.

"A moving talking puppet." Sora finished.

"Hmmm," Crowtassha nodded her head in appreciation of the what-the-hellness of the sight they just beheld. "Well I think this calls for further investigation." She began stiffly walking off following the little titbits of sounds made by the moving puppet leaving Sora and Luke behind as they recovered. Luke continued to stare up at the vacant ledge his head twisting to the side in sheer astonishment. The only thing that got him to move was Sora grabbing him by the arm when he realised Crowtassha had walked off and dragging him behind him.

When they reached where the puppet was going to they found him with another person. A human this time, an old man in fact.

The old man asked, "What have you got there Pinocchio?"

Beside him the puppet said, "With we can get out of here father."

"Oh really?" The old man exclaimed, admiring the block of silvery mythacite, "With this big block, you think so?

Taking this chance to jump in on the conversation, Sora approached them and said, "it's true.'

The three of them walked up close to the old man and the puppet, who was as the old man had called him Pinocchio. Trying to avoid looking at the oddity that Pinocchio was Sora decided to aim the topic of the conversation elsewhere.

"So, how'd you two end up here?"

"Oh," the old man noted upon seeing them, "This monstrous shark swallowed us, and I'm afraid to say you three as well. How unfortunate."

"I guess so." Sora concurred, still unsure what exactly this 'shark' was classified as. Going off Crowtassha's brief explanation it was a little confusing.

The old man nodded, holding out his hand he introduced himself, "I'm Geppetto, I'm Pinocchio's father."

"Sora." He greeted in return shaking his hand. Crowtassha gave Geppetto her name as well, and told him Luke's.

When Sora asked again how he ended up here the old man answered, "Oh well when Pinocchio ran off I went everywhere looking for him, and over the course of it I was swallowed by this shark, and in time Pinocchio was too. I can only hope he wasn't too mischievous in my absence." He paused and asked the puppet, "You weren't were you Pinocchio?"

Only during the talk, everyone had neglected to see Pinocchio get distracted and walk off. Geppetto had turned just at the right moment to see him swallowed up by the dark of the shark's stomach.

He sighed, "Even as I'm fretting about it you're being mischievous." He looked back at the three of them and asked kindly, "My body is old and sore, could you fetch him for me?"

"Sure." Sora replied, walking past Geppetto to the dark depths Pinocchio had trodden.

**…:…**

The three of them travelled further into the shark's stomach guided by the light of Luke's small flame. The puppet wasn't too hard to locate, only about ten metres in did they set eyes on him.

He was crouching by a pile of wooden rubble, almost as if he was hiding.

When they were close enough that they were sure Pinocchio could see them as well, Sora stepped forward and asked, "What are you doing here Pinocchio, let's go back."

"Geppetto's worried." Crowtassha added.

When Pinocchio still didn't budge Sora told him further, "Come Pinocchio stop fooling around, this is no time for games."

"But I thought you liked games." A voice cut through the darkness, "Or do you not care for them now after all that's happened." A figure formed from the shadows, the owner of the voice. His silver hair piercing past the dark backdrop.

Sora started in surprise. Beside him Crowtassha took a cautionary step backwards.

"Riku." Sora mouthed, when the shock over the boy's sudden appearance quelled and reality hit the words, "What are you doing here?" followed.

Riku gave a dark smile, "Playing a game." He answered vaguely.

"That's not what I meant!" Sora fired back, "I meant…" he paused, realising a flaw in his words, _'What had he meant?'_

"If you're thinking of that red headed girl that Dark seeker took out, I'll make you a deal, catch us and I'll tell you about her." With those words Riku grabbed hold of Pinocchio's hand and ran further into the depths of the shark.

Sora stood in the same spot unmoving. He realised something. There was a detail in Riku's last sentence that Sora couldn't figure out how he knew it. "How he'd know that Kairi had been taken out by a dark seeker?"

Crowtassha stared on with the same bizarre question riding on her lips, "How indeed." She mumbled, pulling a stronger expression, "Maybe it's worthwhile to play along with his game for a while."

Sora nodded. This was a question that worried him greatly, he had to figure it out. So deeper into the shark they walked in pursuit of Pinocchio and Riku.

**…:…**

They searched high and low for Pinocchio. In twisting patterns, under and over swallowed debris. The shark's size was colossal, making the search area ten times that of what you'd expect. Winning this little game of hide and seek proved to be much harder than previously anticipated.

What's more, an oddity presented itself in the appearance of Heartless within the shark. They should have only been attracted to worlds and their keyholes. Their existence here only strengthened Crowtassha's world fragment theory, but all the same it made whatever the Heartless were here for useless. This was no world, the way Pinocchio and Geppetto acted made that all too clear. To them they were simply trapped in the shark, it was not their world but a prison. The Heartless had come here searching for something that wasn't here. Their only use seemed to be to hinder them on their way. But they were destroyed each round they fought against the three of them, and never took attention away from their main quest within the shark. They continued their search.

**…:…**

Zoi suka leaned against a pile of debris behind Riku. Absent-mindedly cleaning out her nails she wondered out loud to the boy in front of her, "Why do you still bother that boy, I've already shown you that he cares more for those two and the Keyblade. So why do you continue?"

Riku flicked his eyes back to the elder women, "It's not that I care for him, it's more that he reacts amusingly when messed with."

"Is that so?" Zoi suka inquired, pushing herself off the pile, "Such cruelty I would watch. Darkness like that is ample food for Heartless." As she let a portal of darkness take her away last words escaped Riku's mouth.

"Keep your thoughts to yourself witch."

**…:…**

Sora and the others had caught sight of Pinocchio. They chased after him but the tricky little puppet was stubborn in avoiding capture. He led them further into the shark than they had dared venture before.

On the edge of a darkness yet unseen in the beast the figure of Riku formed. Pinocchio ran past him but he didn't budge from his spot. Sora halted.

Riku stared at him emotionlessly. His stare baited Sora into speaking.

"Riku, why are you doing this? What's the point?"

"Does there have to be one? It's fun to mess with you. If we're going to question things, why don't you ask yourself why you're helping people from worlds you don't know, when you could be helping your friends from your own who are indisposed. Like that girl for example."

"Ah." Sora tried to create an answer to that but one didn't come. The words bit deep. Of course he wanted to save Kairi, but how could he if he didn't know how? He looked back up to meet Riku's eyes. His earlier comment made it seem like he knew something. If there was any lead he could find which might lead him to Kairi, chances were Riku was it.

Pinocchio's scream cut through those thoughts and threw any further talking down the drain. All of those present jumped and turned to look in the direction the sound came from. Though of course through the darkness nothing was visible.

Reacting before thinking Sora jumped head first into the darkness with Crowtassha and Luke following. Luke brightened his flame to fight against the increased darkness and they made their way to the source of the sound.

Within they found a horrible sight of Pinocchio trapped with the cage of a Heartless. The monster was sickly green and grew multiple tentacles from its body. Sora and the two beside him readied for the fight to save Pinocchio. It was only to soft steps from the side of him that made Sora pause before beginning the fight.

Riku drew even with him, watching the twitching Heartless monster. He drew a wing shaped blade.

"Shall we?" He said.

Realising it was his intention to help them Sora nodded his head enthusiastically, "Yeah."

Ducking out of the way of the swinging tentacles, Sora and the others all began hammering away at the Heartless. Reacting to the blows they were dealing its stomach the monster whammed them with its arms. They packed quite the punch and knocked them out of attack range, successfully blocking them from attacking the Heatless until they managed to get back on their feet and to its stomach once more.

They continued to fight on like this. Luke kept up on the healing, but didn't completely pull out from the fight like the previous world. Sora even helped on occasion.

Once the monster had had enough of this treatment it spit Pinocchio out and the puppet went flying to someplace behind them. Riku swiftly drew away and ran after the sailing puppet. Sora, Crowtassha and Luke stayed only long enough to the see big Heartless race off in a random direction through the shark's stomach. When it had disappeared they too began to retrace their steps to the area where Pinocchio had been thrown.

Their feet took them back to where they had met Geppetto. The old man seemed distraught, and it only took a couple seconds to figure out why. A few metres away stood Riku, holding the limp form of Pinocchio in one arm.

Geppetto stood there begging him, "Please give me back my son."

But the boy didn't blink twice at his panicked face, "Sorry old man, but I have some business with this puppet."

"But that puppet's my son." The man argued back.

Riku's eyes drifted momentarily to the puppet he held, "I'll admit he's unusual, being a puppet yet still having a heart," His eyes raised back to Geppetto and Sora, "he might be able to help someone who's lost there's."

Something clicked in Sora head when he heard that. He looked to Riku, "You don't mean Kairi do you?"

"What does it matter?" Riku replied before slipping into the darkness.

Quick to follow him, Sora and the others trudged deep into stomach of shark in pursuit. When they got to an area that look to be filled with vats of stomach acid they found the two.

Riku stood looking stoically over the still form on the puppet on the ground.

Sora charged forward. "Let Pinocchio go Riku!'

The boy turned to look at him, he replied, "A puppet that has lost its heart to the Heartless, maybe it holds the key to helping Kairi." He gave more of his focus to Sora, "You wish to help her too don't you, why don't you join me to do so?" He took a step forwards.

Sora bared the Keyblade on Riku's advance. The boy soon halted, "So you'd rather fight me to save a puppet, interesting." The smile he pulled on the last word was ominous.

Sora pulled a hurt expression. It was painful to threaten Riku, after all the years they'd been friends, and after all the years he wished he could still call him so. Closing his eyes against the pain he eventually answered, "At least he still has a conscience."

Riku looked utterly unimpressed by the term, "What use is a conscience?" He sneered.

That hurt Sora further. He gripped the Keyblade tighter, "Because it tell us what's right and wrong. Just like how mine is telling me you're the wrong one here!"

The ominous smile that had been playing on Riku's lips dropped, "Then you narrow down my choice."

He was probably going to draw a weapon but the convoluted snarl of the Heartless from before halted all of them in all actions.

It reappeared in the space between Sora and Riku, raring for a fight. A chance Riku took to slip through a dark portal and away to some other place.

Failing around its tentacles the Heartless began to fight. It had come back more vicious than before and all but threw itself at its opponents, using its tentacles as an axis to throw its body forward as a weapon. Dodging to the side of this attack put Sora and the other two in danger of falling into the pits of acid. So that choice was either done sparingly or not at all, instead a block was favoured. The monster reprised its attack of smashing them with its tentacles, through a stronger version. At times it even began to sink its tentacles into the pools of acid and spray the liquid back at them. Dodging under the monsters arms was enough to avoid this attack, but it was rarely done on time, causing Luke's healing workload to go up. He drew slightly back from the battle to favour this as the fight went on. The Heartless grew aggravated and fought harder and harder the more damage it was dealt. It seemed that it wanted to destroy those who had injured it before, but as it could fight back no longer and a final blow was struck, that determination became its own undoing.

The Heartless evaporated into nothing.

Afterwards, Pinocchio woke up, supposedly fine after his ordeal. He was reunited with the very glad Geppetto, and after some aggravation they got the shark to spit them out. Sora, Crowtassha and Luke used the shard given to them when the shark first swallowed them to get themselves out. Wherever Riku had disappeared to, no one knew.

**…:…**

Far from giant sharks and monstrous Heartless, waves crashed against a ship as it rocked back and forth across the water.

The limp body of Kairi lay upon a red lounge. Her black painted lips unmoving, her eyes sealed tight. Riku stood watching her whist leaning against a wooden support. Zoi suka sat far from them on a seat by a table on the other side of the room.

"So she's a lifeless puppet with a stolen heart now, is that all?" Riku inquired.

"That's all." Zoi suka echoed. Watching the boy more closely she tapped her finger against the table. "If you help me gather the Princesses of heart like we discussed, and open the door to all worlds, then maybe we can find that girl's heart. Though I have no idea why you wish to do so." She got up with a stretch, and began walking towards the younger boy, "but as you are now you're as useless to me as that girl beside you. If you wish to help I'll have to grant you a little gift."

She drew even with the boy and grinned. She snapped her fingers.

"The power to control Heartless."

* * *

><p><em>DBF Riku scares the living crap out of me. Seriously, and he's my own creation. This is why I can't wait to get up to writing KH ll when he no longer scares me.<em>

_The chapter got a little rushed in parts, I remember being very irritated while writing some parts, but I hope the quality isn't awful._

_Please review, I'll positively love you for it._

_~C.L.K_


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